Flash Flood — Comal, Texas

2013-10-31 · near New Braunfels, Comal, Texas

Event narrative

Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding in Comal County. People were evacuated along River Road in New Braunfels, and near Spring Branch, Elm Creek was running 40 to 50 feet wide where it is normally about four feet. The 24 hour rainfall in the River Rd. area ranged from 3.81 to 6.58 inches while in the Spring Branch area there was between 10.40 and 11.75 inches. A man fell into the Guadalupe River near the horseshoe just down from Canyon Dam. The man was trying to retrieve some equipment while the river was quickly rising. The 26 year old drown and his body was recovered a few days later. Portions of River Road just west of New Braunfels became flooded between 1 and 2 am in the morning.

Wider weather episode

Prolonged flow from the Gulf of Mexico produced a deep moist layer at the surface with precipitable water values two standard deviations above the mean on area soundings. An upper level trough of low pressure moved out of northern New Mexico and across the Texas Panhandle providing lift to produce showers and thunderstorms. A surface trough was the focus of training storms which produced heavy rainfall that led to major flooding across the Onion Creek and Blanco/San Marcos River watersheds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.7100, -98.1300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 481043. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.