Tropical Storm Bill Makes Landfall at Port O’Connor
As predicted, the tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico strengthened quickly overnight to become Tropical Storm Bill. As of 7:30 AM, Bill is making landfall at Matagorda Bay, near Port O'Connor.
Maximum sustained winds are at 60mph with gusts up to 70mph near squalls. The storm system is moving northwest at 13mph. The path of the remnants of Bill will move towards Central Texas before making a gradual northeasterly turn towards the Midwest. With that track, it's altogether possible that Waco, Dallas/Fort Worth and the southern Oklahoma area could have higher rainfall totals than Houston. That could spell very bad news for the Brazos, Trinity and Red River which have been seeing epic flooding over the past few weeks.
Closer to home, all of East Texas is under a Flash Flood Watch through Wednesday morning. Widespread rainfall amounts of around 2-3 inches could occur with isolated higher amounts. We'll have winds from the southeast at about 10-15mph for the next day or so in the Pineywoods. Winds may be gust to near 30 in isolated rain squalls.