What Happened, Meteorologically

A wet weather pattern developed across the eastern half of Texas last Sunday, when a large trough of low pressure from the Pacific pushed inland and stalled over the desert Southwest. The wind flowing through the trough has allowed a series of small disturbances to track around the trough and northeast across Mexico, then across Texas. The first of these disturbances arrived Sunday night, causing widespread soaking rains over an area generally along and east of Interstate 35.

Since Sunday night, additional waves of low pressure have moved over the same area, producing more periods of soaking rain and scattered thunderstorms.

Weather conditions became very favorable for persistent heavy rain across the Fayette County area Tuesday evening, when a warm front pushing north from the Gulf of Mexico stalled across the county.

The combination of an approaching wave of low pressure, the stalled boundary and unusually moist air flowing north from the Gulf of Mexico caused heavy rain to fall over the county for several hours. The county saw widespread rain totals of 5 to 7 inches of rain Tuesday night.

The wet pattern is predicted to continue through Wednesday night as more atmospheric disturbances move across Texas. The pattern is predicted to change Thursday, when the stalled trough out to the west is expected to move northeast to the Plains states, taking the stream of disturbances with it.