SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH: Hail, damaging winds and heavy rain possible

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Chief Meteorologist Chris Suchan.

[00:00:03]>> We got the storm tracker out there. We are seeing storms.

[00:00:05]>> Yeah, we had it up there on 281. I don't know if we could take that shot again if it's even ready for us here at this moment, but the top of the newscast we saw it was up there around Spring Branch.

[00:00:14]>> Little bit of lightning that was up there. And >> there you can see it. Yeah. And on occasion you'll see a lightning flash, but those storms are moving in. We also had some gusts up there into Kale County and in the process now heading back down south towards Bear County where we're going to reposition it here for more storms to come. All right, here we go.

[00:00:31]Let's get you started with the severe thunderstorm watch. Now, the National Weather Service uh talked to the storm prediction center probably going to lean away from issuing a watch for Bandera and Bear County because the outflow boundary has been moving through from storms up to the north. Sometimes that's a stabilizing factor. So, for now, I think they're going to hold off. That doesn't mean we can't get a warning though as I'll show you here in just a second. There you see some of the lightning here on our Rahobi Rodriguez law can view there in Kurville. That's uh the strongest portion of the storms that I'm tracking are up there in Kirk County with that batch there. You see all that lightning? It's always a great indicator of the health of the storms.

[00:01:08]Those are the strongest updrafts. And this guy here has been punched up over 50,000 feet up. A little bit of development now coming into Del Rio. And then this is not a severe portion of the line here coming into Bear. And then it does get stronger in this portion where there's been some wind damage up 35 Austin right up through uh Georgetown here in Williamson County and Travis County have been reporting some strong winds through this evening. Here you have live power Doppler radar that one existing warning. This warning here we may see another warning that goes further off to the eastsoutheast from it based on how it's trending. And in fact I'll take you in there a little bit closer. It's got a hail core on it. It had pulsed up to over an inch diameter hail. Looks like right now the recent uh scan here on hail tracker is trending down. So now you're getting to the point where it's not severe hail anymore inside a little bit smaller hail maybe dime or penny size. The storm tops it had punched up to about 55 to 60,000 ft.

[00:02:03]And right there that's the top of that storm and you can see the recent scan here on it. There it is. That's how high up into the atmosphere it is. So it's got torrential rainfall with all that lightning. In fact, we look at the rainfall rates here on it. Earlier I showed you over seven inches per hour right there on the Bandera Kirk County line. That looks like to be the heaviest there. And there it is. 5 to 6 in per hour. The rainfall rates here. Even in a portion of the storm, say like right here or up here. You're still talking about some really healthy rainfall there. 3 to 4 ines per hour for example.

[00:02:34]So it's coming down in absolute buckets here over the Guadalupe watershed.

[00:02:39]Eventually that's going to be the Medina River watershed. And I do feel there's some potential uh that we will see. You see how there's more development here in Bandere County. It's going to feed into this. We'll see if we get another warning as this is the ultimate direction that cluster is moving in.

[00:02:52]That's the outflow boundary right there.

[00:02:54]So, as that's been coming through, that's been generating some some wind gusts on its own. All right, let's go a little bit closer in here on live power Doppler radar for our friends up there in the Bandera Kirk County out there towards Hunt. Boy, it is really putting down lightning, loud thunder, some wind gusts in here that could be hitting 60 mph. That's for that warning. And again, we'll be keeping a close eye on Bandara to Pipe Creek and Medina towards Lake Hills to Medina Lake as this cluster is going to be moving towards the eastsoutheast as I see it in Bear County into some of Kendall. There you see pockets of moderate to heavy rain sinking south as the boundary is pushing south. It's developing some of these showers and eventually some thunderstorms. and then into Komal County. There you see a nice soaking rain for a good chunk of the county right over to Bronals now and that's going to be working its way towards Sigin. So there's the big broad view.

[00:03:43]You see the line taking shape. It's got a little bit of this sort of a little bit of a a squiggly look to it, but that's all going to be moving here towards the coastline southsoutheast through the night. I'll show you a house computer model. The other model I showed you earlier is doing an absolutely horrible job initializing these storms.

[00:03:59]So this is I feel the model of choice right now. You see the general semblance of a line of storms that moves towards the coastline. Tomorrow, not much. I think in the evening we could cook up a shower or thunderstorm and then we'll have another chance into Thursday. In fact, you see your day tomorrow, it's fairly dry. Then in the evening, it'll start to go up to a 30% rain chance, only 83. I do have a weather alert day Thursday for a risk of a spot or two could get a little flooding rain, not severe weather. And I'm keeping an eye on Saturday. See, I got the question mark there. Uh that's going into Memorial Day weekend, which speaking of which on those rain chances Saturday, 60% 40% Sunday. And I only have a 30% chance for Memorial Day Monday.

[00:04:38]Expecting to get some good sunshine too during the day. The two global models here are the rainfall comparisons over 7 days. And that's my forecast right there. That's over seven days my expectations. So 7-day forecast here.

[00:04:51]There you have it. 83 tomorrow. Of course, we have the Spurs game right here on NBC and News 4. 82 Thursday. Low to mid 80s into the weekend with still that chance for a few showers and thunderstorms. Western zone, more rain chances ahead for you. You have that batch in Del Rio right now. Hill Country, the storms moving through now.

[00:05:08]More opportunities in the coming days.

[00:05:10]And here's a look at our eastern zone where we have an active pattern and those storms will be coming through the eastern zone overnight tonight. One down, three more to go for the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. A word from our sponsor. Then Zach is live from Oklahoma City in 15 seconds.