FLOOD WATCH: Storms, heavy rain continue across South Texas

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Hey there, good evening. I'm Chief Meteorologist Stephanie Lauber. Rain has been the talk of the town here. I think we all could use a little more sleep during the overnight period. Storms not really allowing us to do that. And with the activity we've seen in the valley tonight and around the coastal bend, we can expect a little more of stormage during the overnight. I don't think this is going to be as problematic as it has been the past two nights. But when I said that on Monday, it definitely came back to bite me. So, let's talk about what we're expecting with tonight's storms. It looks like the evening is going to stay warm and humid, cloudy skies, and even some rain out there as we walk our way into Thursday. We're still keeping an eye on storms out west because as those continue to bubble and churn, those are expected to come our way. Will they hold together is the question. And it seems like we have the ingredients in place to make that happen. I think the time frame might benefit us a little better though because it looks like we're going to have a quiet first couple of hours of Thursday here across coastal bend. Generally speaking, it's not until about 3:00 in the morning that we start to see some of these storms moving into our more northern neighborhoods and those closer to the brush country such as out in Duval County and Jim Hogg County, which have have been the closest to the storms we've seen tonight overall. Temperatures don't change a whole lot until that rain gets here. And even then, we're not expecting much of a cool down. But if you're heading out the door for the Thursday morning commute, that's where things can get a little messy in some of the more more populated areas along Highway 77, 37, 181, and along here in Corpus Christi along SPID, places like that.

[00:01:35]Around 5:00 a.m., we're looking at some storms likely moving through our neighborhoods. And this is where I think we might be dealing with a very familiar storm situation like we saw the past couple of nights with strong winds, plenty of lightning out there. And as you see from the bright colors on Future Tracker here, heavy rainfall. Again, we're under a flood watch. This is why. We've got a couple more days we're going to see the heavy downpours. So, this is a model that's not set in stone, but I think the Friday morning commute is going to be one where you should probably give a few extra minutes to wake up, have some coffee, and plan your commute out the door safely because it's going to be some wet roadways for us as we head into the day. Now, it looks like there will be another break as we get into the mid-morning hours, but don't think that's the last of the rainfall that we'll see on Thursday. It seems like we will likely have rain for at least the first half of the day. I think that having a raincoat on hand is probably going to be your best bet. Who needs an umbrella when the wind's just going to blow it around, right? So, as we go through the morning commute, that's likely going to be the bulk of it. Showers and storms, focus on the storms heading into the morning timeframe. Please be careful out on your morning commute. Things will improve, it seems, as we head on into the afternoon.

[00:02:50]Remember, this is scattered shower and thunderstorm activity uh from the late morning timeframe on into the early afternoon. The ride home could be wet for some of us, but again, if we see a lot of activity during the morning commute, that could help things be a little quieter into the evening timeframe. So, this is something that is very much in flux. It's something myself and meteorologist Steven Jones will be monitoring as we head on into your Thursday, but I would prepare for a rainy day. This is probably going to be the wettest day we've seen so far of the week. Not just an overnight situation, but also seeing some of the showers into the afternoon. It doesn't completely dial back, but it seems as though sunset is going to be a little bit of a break for us before that rainfall activity picks up again. And we are expecting a lot of rain, y'all, between here and Memorial Day Monday, which is when I think, again, things will dial back. A lot of this owing to the overnight period. So, a flood watch will be in effect until Monday at 7:00 p.m. as we await more heavy rainfall across the coastal bend. And when we don't have rain, you can expect it to be warm and humid.