Burn Bans

Drought

Monthly Change in Drought Monitor Classification

Agriculture / Livestock

Texas Crop and Weather Report -- May 3 -- There were planting challenges for the crops, but it was not as difficult this year as it was last year in May. However, the rain already experienced was not good for some cotton crops in the Blacklands region.
AgriLife Today, Adam Russell, May 3, 2016

Texas Crop and Weather Report -- May 10 -- Currently it is a busy time for beekeepers, who are doing everything from selling queens and hives to moving their hives around to pollinate different crops for profit. Some Central Texas locations could have had more rainfall on the pastures.
AgriLife Today, Adam Russell, May 10, 2016

Texas Crop and Weather Report -- May 18 -- There were some crops under stress from lack of rain. The forages and tanks also had signs of stress along with beef. Many of the farmers have learned to be independent of weather patterns through utilizing irrigation techniques with their property.
AgriLife Today, Adam Russell, May 18, 2016

Texas weather rough ride for farmers -- Many local rainfall records were made, ranches and farms were damaged. All of this was provided by the severe thunderstorms, which brought with it large hail and damaging winds. In South and East Texas many farmers suffered crop loss from the water soaked soils coupled with high winds. Livestock were harmed in the weather as well.
Farm Press, Logan Hawkes, May 23, 2016

Texas Crop and Weather Report -- May 24 -- For farmers, it was frustrating to see it was too wet to fertilize, yet not dry enough to fertilize. They have to be careful and work around the rain. Some fields were drowned out or washed away in southeastern Texas, and are not likely to be replanted.
AgriLife Today, Adam Russell, May 24, 2016

ENSO

Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon says the current El Nino weather pattern that’s been in place since last summer over the central Pacific Ocean is on its way out, leaving Texas with one of the warmest winters on record.
Daily Journal, Associated Press, May 7, 2016

As El Niño Dissipates, Texas Still Recovering from Warmer Than Normal Winter -- This El Niño brought with it one of the warmest winters for Texas along with above normal rainfall. The above normal temperatures are not typical of the El Niño, however. With the El Niño weakening, the La Niña season is on its way with more hurricanes expected to form in the Atlantic.
Claims Journal, Staff Writer, May 10, 2016

Significant Weather

Rainfall / Flooding

Flooding Flushes Oil, Chemicals Into Texas Rivers -- Flood waters reached oil wells and fracking sites, leading to the possibility of having fracking chemicals in rivers. The Texas Railroad COmmission believes they responded well enough to the incident, however scientists are unsure that they that did enough. One believes this fracked water will reach groundwater, creeks and streams. This may not seem like a bad thing, however cattle die when exposed to this chemical in their drinking water. It is also dangerous for humans.
ABC13, Associated Press, May 1, 2016

Weather Talk: Flood capital of U.S. in Texas -- Houston is just 43 feet above sea level and right next to the Gulf of Mexico. This leads to an average of five flood warnings a year and homes are often flooded.
WDAY, John Wheeler, May 2, 2016

Weekend Flooding Kills 6 in Palestine, Texas Including 4 Children -- A grandmother and her four grandchildren along with another person were found dead due to the floodwaters. The lone victim tried to escape, but the floodwater had reached the roof of his home already.
The Weather Channel, Eric Chaney and Sean Breslin, May 2, 2016

Body discovered in car as Texas flood waters recede -- Police say it is possible that the man trapped in the car was a victim of the “Tax Day” floods. They are still investigating to make sure the weather was the cause of his death.
The Weather Network, Dalia Ibrahim, May 4, 2016

KSAT Weather: Showers again in forecast for Sunday -- Showers and storms were possible through the day for the San Antonio area. The National Weather Service predicted about a half to an inch of rain per hour for these showers, with some lightning possible as well. This lead to a flood advisory in Bexar County.
KSAT, Justin Horne, May 14, 2016

Storms slam South Texas with hail, high winds; NWS reports flooding in Schertz, New Braunfels -- Cars were sitting in high water along I-35. The flood warnings were issued for Guadalupe River for Hunt and Comal River for parts of New Braunfels. These two rivers were expected to have minor flooding. Many people went without power due to outages.
KSAT, Chris Shadrock, May 15, 2016

Flash Flooding in Soggy South Texas Swamps Corpus Christi -- About a foot of rain fell in some areas of Corpus Christi, which left many cars stranded on the road. Within a 24 hour period ending Monday morning a surprising 11.51 inches of rain fell in southeast Corpus Christi. This brought about a flash flooding emergency for the area and some surrounding counties. Further north, Houston and Galveston also the National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch.
NBC News, Corky Siemaszko, May 16, 2016

Texas Flooding Kills 2, Leaves 3 Missing; Evacuations Underway -- Two people passed away in a floods. The amount of rain lead to flooding and some historic levels of water in many of the rivers. About 100 homes were damaged in Bastrop County, Texas.
The Weather Channel, Ada Carr, May 28, 2016

Seven dead after record-setting floods in Texas, Kansas -- Four of the deceased were found in Washington County, one was found in Travis county, another in Kendall County and the last one was found in Hood County. Even though the rain has stopped, many of the roadways remain flooded. Rescue boats were able to save some people from the floodwaters. Some were trapped in their cars and homes surrounded by floodwaters.
CNN, Joe Sutton, Madison Park and Mayra Cuevas, May 31, 2016

Severe Weather

Fort Worth Area could see more severe weather toward end of weekend -- Mainly thunderstorms were expected for the weekend. This meant possible large hail, some flooding and damaging wind. Tornadoes were not expected and if they occurred one or two could be supported.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Bill Hanna, May 6, 2016

Multiple-day severe weather threat to begin Saturday over central US -- The storms through Monday had the possibility of bringing damaging winds, flash flooding, isolated tornadoes and large hail to many parts of Eastern, Central and Southern Texas
AccuWeather, Alex Sosnowski, May 7, 2016

Severe Storms Bring Large Hail, Tornadoes to Plains Mother’s Day Weekend -- Abilene experienced large hail and wind gusts up to 60 mph. The hail reports showed some as big as baseballs in Hawley.
The Weather Channel, Ada Carr, May 8, 2016

Plains States Brace for Twisters, Large Hail as Storm System Marches On -- The National Weather Service predicted that parts of Texas could experience 60 mph wind gusts and 1 inch in diameter hail. A separate storm system on Wednesday could bring in more severe weather.
NBC News, Cassandra Vinograd, May 9, 2016

Severe weather stalks North Texas again -- A dry line over I-35 was expected to cause some thunderstorms reaching severe for the evening. Isolated tornadoes could occur and the thunderstorms were expected to be concentrated as opposed to widespread and capable of producing larger hail.
Fox 4, Meteorologist Evan Andrews, May 9, 2016

Thunderstorms move through Central Texas late Tuesday -- A severe thunderstorm watch was issued in the evening by the National Weather Service for Central and North Texas. Radar detected wind gusts of up to 60 mph and quarter sized hail.
Killeen Daily Herald, Staff Writer, May 10, 2016

Active Severe Weather Season Fuels Demand for Storm Shelters -- Normally it takes the company 2-3 weeks to deliver the shelter and the increased demand has increased the wait time to 8 weeks. Many people find peace in having the storm shelter. Often it is parents, who are more concerned about their child’s protection than their own.
NBC-DFW, Noelle Walker, May 10, 2016

Damaging Hailstorms have Cost Billions of Dollars in Spring 2016 -- Softball sized hail fell over Wylie. The hail combined with the strong winds lead to severe damages to homes and cars. There was roughly $2.5 billion in insured losses from hail during April 10-15 in Texas alone.
The Weather Channel, Chris Dolce, May 10, 2016

Storms Leave San Antonio Under the Weather -- The flash flooding brought about 4 inches of rain an hour and hail to southern Texas. Hail varied in size from pea to golf ball sized.
ABC11, Liz Horton, May 10, 2016

Tennis ball-sized hail possible in San Antonio Tues. Afternoon -- The area was expecting hail 2.5 inches in diameter, which is about the size of a tennis ball. The possibility of tornadoes could not be ruled out, but they were unlikely.
KENS-TV, Staff Writer, May 10, 2016

Severe weather to target Texas to Illinois into Wednesday night -- Localized thunderstorms were expected in Central Texas. These storms brought with them the possibility of damaging winds, downpours, isolated tornadoes, and large hail.
AccuWeather, Brett Rathbun, May 11, 2016

Clean-up continues after storms -- Many people went without power over Northern Texas due to the storms. There were 7,500 people in Dallas County, 1,200 in Kaufman County and 6,100 people in Tarrant County without power. Cars were also damaged due to falling trees. Power lines were also damaged and many fell during the storm.
WFAA, WFAA Staff, May 11, 2016

Weather Wonders: Tornado vs straight-line winds -- On Monday night straight-line winds went through East Texas. The main difference between these straight line winds and tornadoes is in the debris path you can see a line of damage as opposed to a more sporadic damage pattern of a tornado. Straight line winds can be just as damaging and strong as tornadic winds.
KLSA, Nicole Madden Meteorologist/Reporter, May 11, 2016

Stormy weather unlikely to hit Central Texas -- Most of Central Texas is expected to have a possibility of receiving severe thunderstorms, however some areas were unlikely to be hit. The Killeen area had a low chance of these thunderstorms reaching them. However, showers off and on during the day were predicted.
Killeen Daily Herald, Don Munsch, May 12, 2016

Austin area braces for second storm system on Sunday -- As of 6p.m. 54 low water crossing areas were closed due to floodwaters. There were 67 people without power and many providers were seeing outages, with about 700 customers affected by them. That would not be the only storm experienced, as another storm was expected to move through Sunday.
The Austin American-Statesman, Staff Writer, May 11, 2016

Severe Weather Hits the Valley -- A tornado was located over Elsa moving at about 20 mph and bringing with it hail about the size of ping pong balls and wind gusts of 60 mph. THe rio grande valley was expected to have severe thunderstorms as well.
KRGV, Staff Writer, May 14, 2016

Hazardous weather today, unsettled weather next week -- The I-10 corridor was expected to receive the storms, if the colliding boundary of the sea breeze and cold front end up meeting there as Meteorologists predicted. The storms are expected to produce lightning, large hail and some damaging winds and locally heavy rain. More storms would be possible throughout the week as the cold front slowly moved across Texas. Yet a new system further into the week was expected to bring more heavy rain, which would be problematic for the
The Journal Pearland, NWS Houston/Galveston, May 14, 2016

Severe storms, flooding eye Texas and Florida into Tuesday night -- Heavy rain along with a flooding potential was expected for central to East and Deep South Texas. Along with that threat, damaging wind and hail was also expected for the area from Del Rio to about Abilene.
AccuWeather, Alex Sosnowski, May 17, 2016

Texas in line for more severe weather and flooding -- Texas continued to face damaging winds, hail, and possible tornadoes. The state received many storms already and is not seeing a break in the future.
FoxNews, Janice Dean, May 17, 2016

Severe weather blasts into South Texas … again -- Hail, damaging winds, and heavy rainfall were expected for South Texas again. The Comal River, which usually has recreational activities allowed had to be canceled due to excess water. Many roads were closed due to flooding.
KENS 5, Staff Writer, May 18, 2016

Severe weather, flooding rainfall to target Texas and Louisiana into Thursday night -- Heavy thunderstorms were expected along the Coastal and far Eastern portion of Texas. Any of the rain from the thunderstorms were capable of causing flash flooding, due to the soil already being supersaturated by previous storms. This risk was elevated for College Station, Beaumont, and Houston area. The lower Rio Grande valley area to just south of Houston was expected to receive more severe thunderstorms along with damaging wind, hail and heavier rainfall.
AccuWeather, Meteorologist Brett Rathbun, May 19, 2016

Strong Storms Drop Hail On Parts Of Houston -- Hail hit various parts of the Houston and areas surrounding it including College Station and Hempstead, which received hail earlier in the morning. Later in the evening more viewers of the station sent in images of hail for Pearland, Angleton and other areas south of I-10.
ABC 13, Staff Writer, May 21, 2016

National Weather Service: Turkey, TX tornado was EF-3, winds reached 138 mph -- The tornado reached the ground by 10 p.m. and was determined to be a EF-3 strength by the National Weather Service. To explain the strength of this storm, there were steel pylons, which were bent by the wind. The tornado was estimated to be about a half a mile wide.
KCBD, Amber Stegall, May 21, 2016

Weather Extra: Strong Storm Possible Sunday Evening -- Central Texas had plenty of moisture in the air to aid in the development of storms. The areas further west in Texas had higher chance of experiencing severe storms. The storms were expected to weaken in time for morning traffic to work. Monday was forecasted to bring in more pleasant dry weather and possibly a few showers.
KVUE, Staff Writer, May 22, 2016

More severe weather expected in Texas after tornadoes, rain -- Meteorologist Andrew Arnold at the Odessa National Weather Service office mentioned several tornadoes came from a supercell by Big Spring. The Panhandle NWS sent out crews to assess up to seven tornadoes. More damage is expected to be possible with hail up to the size of baseballs, isolated tornadoes, and strong winds are the the primary concerns for the area going into Monday evening.
Amarillo Globe-News, Associated Press, May 23, 2016

Tornadoes twist through Texas, more storm potential ahead -- Sunday brought about many severe storms through the Central area of Texas. Several tornadoes were reported and spotted. Texas’ Ochiltree County had two tornadoes. A dry line over western Texas was moving eastward and producing isolated supercell thunderstorms.
The Weather Network, Daniel Martins, May 23, 2016

Other Climate Impacts

Economics / Technology

Rainy weekend could sour plans for young Lubbock entrepreneurs on Lemonade Day -- Strong thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon by the National Weather Service. By the evening, the thunderstorm had produced hail and snow plows were being used to get the hail off Interstate 40 to avoid damage from the weight of the hail.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Jordan Sigler, May 14, 2016

Weather causes power outages in our area -- Power was out in Flour Bluff, leaving roughly 2,500 people without power. The outages was assumed to be weather related. There was a home hit by lightning in Corpus Christi and the firefighters were working to put out the flames.
TEGNA, Staff Writer, May 15, 2016

Traffic

Saturday severe weather blog -- A slow moving storm made its way through Central Texas on Saturday. It brought with it rain and flooding for many counties. Hail fell over some roadways. At the end of the storm there was a rainbow in Austin.
KVUE, Staff Writer, May 14, 2016

Weather delays major East Texas construction project -- The road construction is the West Cumberland Road extension, which needs to be completed. Sufficient rain in the area has caused many delays. The project was expected to be over in April, and now it has been pushed back to July with diminishing hopes it will be done by the new date as well.
KLTV, Paul Rivera, May 16, 2016

Wet Wednesday Morning Commute -- The roads were expected to be wet for the morning commute. Always turn around and do not drown if there is water over the road and the road is no longer visible.
ABC, Travis Herzog, May 18, 2016

14 Million at Risk as Thunderstorms Threaten Plains, Midwest and South -- The severe thunderstorm threat reached from the Mexico Border to Lake Superior. Some major cities were expected to see just thundr and some rainfall, with the possibility of flooding. There were 27 tornadoes reported across Texas, Kansas and South Dakota. One of the larger tornadoes in Ochiltree County took down some power lines.
NBC News, Alexander Smith and corky Siemaszko, May 23, 2016

Storm Hunters nab incredible footage of tornado outbreak -- Two tornadoes were spotted near Big Spring. One family lost their home due to the tornadoes. Three semi-trucks were topped over an interstate. Thankfully no injuries were reported.
The Weather Network, Dalia Ibrahim, May 25, 2016

Severe Thunderstorms, Tornadoes Take Aim at the Plains States Again Friday -- About a dozen people were rescued from flood waters in southeast Texas. There was also a possible tornado located in Bryan, Texas. On Sunday, tornadoes were reported in Howardwick, near I-20 and Big Springs and Waka Texas. The Waka torado brought sizeable damage with a quarter mile row of power lines brought down. A tornado was reported in Northfield, Texas on May 23. There were reports of baseball-sized hail in Sanderson, with smaller hail located in Silverton and golf ball size hail in McLean.
The Weather Channel, Staff Writer, May 26, 2016

153 Homes in Bryan Damaged by Tornado -- Officials of the city of Bryan declared 153 homes experienced major damage. The National Weather Service declared the tornado at strength EF-1. The tornado affected mainly three neighborhoods, and most homes there suffered at least minor damage, but no injuries were reported.
ABC News, Staff Writer, May 27, 2016

Academics

Bryan hammered by tornado, flooding -- Bryan police reported at least three houses destroyed with dozens more damaged by the tornado. Many of these houses were in the Wheeler Ridge subdivision. Other areas were more affected with the rain with many students stranded in school due to flooded roads.
KHOU, Staff Writer, May 27, 2016

Flooding, severe weather devastate Texas -- Weather lead to 6 deaths after the heavy rain in Texas and Kansas. In Austin two people were swept away with 9 inches of rain in the area. Many of these deaths took place between Houston and Austin in Washington County. There about 16.5 inches of rain fell in a week. In addition to previous deaths mentioned, two motorists’ bodies were found. Many of the deaths were from people attempting to drive in flooded roadways. Your life is worth more than getting to another location. Students at the Decker Prairie Elementary School were forced to spend the night due to flooded waters keeping them inside.
USA Today, Greg Toppo, May 30, 2016

Recreation/Leisure/Athletics

Funding boost helps Texas state parks weather $40 million in storm damage -- Over the last 18 months flooding and weather caused roughly $40 million in damages to state parks. This left 65 parks closed either partially or completely. Budgeting was rearranged slightly and now they are in a better place to repair the damages.
The Dallas Morning News, Tom Benning, May 2, 2016

Texas weather will be mild, but will hosts be hot or cold? -- The Seattle fans were happy to see the forecast of mid 60s and a low chance of rain for the soccer game in Texas.
The News Tribune, Don Ruiz, May 13, 2016

Event cancellations in Central Texas due to severe weather -- The weather put a damper on fun times for many Central Texans. Bastrop county had to cancel a movie in the park night due to the heavy rain. They have since rescheduled the event. A festival was closed, and the decision to do so was hard to make but they wanted the participants to remain safe. Lastly a Boy Scouts Heroes training event was also cancelled due to the weather.
The Austin American-Statesman, Nicole Barrios, May 14, 2016

Area Athletes Endure Brutal Weather Ironman Texas Event Woodlands -- Participants had to withstand lightning, strong rain, pea-sized hail along with 20 mph wind gusts and 95 degree temperatures. The racers had to stop on the course before the end for their safety and they ate potato chips as they waited to be able to complete running.
The Dallas Morning News, Debbie Fetterman, May 19, 2016

Even if it’s hot, fans flock to watch Rangers - if they are winning -- They are debating making a new stadium with a roof for those days fans would rather not battle the heat. Many fans would rather stay home on the warm days and this will be a factor in the ultimate decision for how they will build the new stadium.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Lee Williams and Bill Hanna, May 20, 2016