The tenacious little disturbance rolling through south Texas – resembling an inland tropical depression on both satellite and radar this morning – has wrung out some impressive rainfall totals since coming ashore early on Sunday.
Radar estimates indicate the system – dubbed Invest 98L – left a trail of widespread, beneficial rains across the South Texas Coastal Bend and Coastal Plains from Corpus Christi to just north of McAllen and Harlingen.
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Most places recorded four to six inches of rain over the past 24 hours, with isolated totals exceeding eight inches so far.
While flooding has been an issue for some areas, this has largely been a positive story for a part of the country desperately in need of good, soaking rains. Another two to four inches, with locally higher amounts, is expected today into the northern Brush Country of south Texas, extending as far west as Laredo and into parts of northeastern Mexico.
While no organized tropical activity is expected this week in the Gulf of elsewhere through the Atlantic, another tropical disturbance moving through the south-central Caribbean today will be headed in the direction of south Texas and northern Mexico for next weekend, which may extend their stormy pattern.
The disturbance we tracked all last week through the eastern and central Atlantic – formerly dubbed Invest 97L – was resurrected briefly in the National Hurricane Center’s outlook starting last night.
The inclusion was mainly an acknowledgement of disorganized showers and storminess over the open waters between the Caribbean islands and Bermuda, but development is not anticipated.
For now, another quiet week lies ahead for the Atlantic.
Though our long-range prediction models suggest a slight uptick in activity across the tropical Atlantic beginning later next week, we don’t see anything yet to hang our hats on.
We’re still about a month out to the traditional peak of hurricane season, but with each passing day the silence is starting to sound a little louder.