CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Hey there, Coastal Bend!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Heat Advisory: Thursday 1-7 p.m.
- Bertha's rainfall arrives Thursday evening
- Choke Canyon is rising
Dangerous heat
Wednesday was the hottest days of the week. Corpus Christi set a new record high temperature of 102ºF! With ample humidity, 'feels like' temps will reach the 110's again on Thursday, but actual temperatures should be a few degrees cooler. In anticipation of this dangerous heat, a Heat Advisory is in effect from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday. Stay cool out there!
Bertha's rain
Bertha will fall apart today as it moves ashore the Texas Coast. While the center of the storm has shift southwest, the landfall itself will remain to our north. Currently there is a low risk of rip currents at our gulf-facing beaches. Our focus is on rainfall! Most of the thunderstorm activity associated with Bertha has been sheared off to the south of its center. That rain will try to move over the Coastal Bend. How successful will it be? High pressure will be an obstacle for the area of heavy tropical downpours. Much of the rain that has drifted to our coast through Wednesday fizzled out before it got very close. Some forecast models reflect this with less rainfall arriving; other bring a sizeable cluster of heavy rainfall to our neighborhoods. As the center passes to our northeast, we'll be watching to see how much rain arrives. As much as 2 inches can be expected near Baffin Bay from Thursday night to Friday morning. This estiamte will change throughout the day on Thursday depending on the storm's evolution.
Watching the watershed
Choke Canyon is rising in response to the flooding along the Firo River in Tilden. With the flood crest surpassing the forecast and rivaling the 2002 flood, Choke Canyon is in a good position to receive lots of water! For more on this check out this weeks Science Snippet. The flood wave along the Nueces has a long trip to Lake Corpus Christi. Unfortunately, this stretch of the river is know to be quite "loss-y", where much of the water moving along the river may be lost to brush and aquifer recharge. We'll have to keep watching.
Have a great night!