Tropical Storm — Brazos, Texas

2017-08-25 to 2017-08-29 · Brazos, Texas

Event narrative

Slow moving Tropical Storm Harvey brought heavy rains and flooding to portions of Brazos, Burleson, Austin, Grimes, Washington and Madison Counties. Moderate to major lowland flooding occurred along rivers and numerous creeks and tributaries. This includes the Brazos at San Felipe, Davison Creek, etc.

Wider weather episode

Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas during the evening of August 25th. The storm then weakened to a tropical storm and slowed, looping back and tracking over SE Texas then back over the Gulf of Mexico making a second landfall along the Louisiana coast during the early morning hours of August 30th. Over that 5 day period over Southeast Texas TS Harvey produced catastrophic flooding with a large area of 30 to 60 inches of rain, 23 tornadoes, tropical storm force winds and a moderate storm surge near Matagorda Bay. In some of the heavier bands rain fell at a rate of over 5 inches per hour. This copious record amount of rain over a led to catastrophic flooding. Thousands of homes, businesses, and roads were flooded due to flash flooding and sheet flow from long duration intense rain. Main stem rivers and adjoining tributaries, creeks and bayous reached full capacity and came out of their banks and this also contributed to the massive flooding across southeastern Texas.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 723650. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.