Edouard brings flood, tornado threat to Texas and Louisiana

Tropical Storm Edouard is expected to hold onto its status as a tropical storm into this evening, tracking through southwest Texas with sustained winds up to 45 mph and gusts up to 60 mph.

The largest threats overnight are flooding and strong winds, with wind advisories in effect until Wednesday afternoon and flood watches lasting until Wednesday evening.

Some areas in southeast Texas could pick up an additional 8 inches of rain over the next 24 hours, which could oversaturate soil and cause flash flooding.

The storm will significantly weaken by the overnight hours, but scattered power outages are still possible in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, so charge your devices overnight and make sure you have a reliable way to get weather alerts before you go to bed.

Edouard is likely to become what’s called a “remnant low” in the coming hours. This is what’s left of a tropical system after it has weakened so much that it no longer has the organized thunderstorms or circulation needed to be classified as a tropical storm. 

Even then, it can still bring heavy rain, gusty winds and flooding as it moves inland or interacts with other weather systems.

Rainfall, flooding, storm surge, tornadoes and prolonged gusty winds associated with a tropical storm can still cause major problems.

Take Tropical Storm Allison in 2001: It never became a hurricane, but it stalled over Texas and Louisiana, dumping extraordinary amounts of rain and producing catastrophic flooding. 

Allison ultimately caused more than $5 billion in damage.

It’s a good reminder that with Edouard, there are still plenty of hazards worth watching out for.

With sustained winds up to 50 mph, Edouard is strong enough to whip rain sideways and send loose objects flying.

If you were to (unwisely) venture outside in those winds, you would find walking upright quite difficult.

Gusts of that speed can make tree branches sway and potentially break, with weaker trees, signs and other unsecured objects at risk of damage.

Ed De Varona, Senior Vice President of the Electric Business at CenterPoint Energy, which supplies nearly three million customers in Houston with power, addressed concerns for outages as Edouard continues on a path toward the city of Houston.

“We're prepared with over 2,700 of our frontline workers and contractors pre-staged to make sure that we're responsive to any outages that have happened,” he said.

The first punches of Tropical Storm Edouard are already being felt along the Texas coast, as wind and rain lash Sabine Pass. 

It’s an early taste of what’s ahead as Eduoard continues its path inland.

With flash flooding being the primary threat with Tropical Storm Edouard, it’s important to know how to stay safe before the water starts to rise.

Some simple tips:

• Have multiple ways to receive alerts from the National Weather Service
• Never drive through flooded roads or around barriers
• Do not wade into flood waters after the storm, as hidden dangers can be lingering

Find more ways to stay safe when your area is under a flood threat here.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said that the main concern for the city with Edouard is rain rather than wind. 

"In Houston, our roads are designed to help carry the water. It is part of our actual stormwater conveyance system, so the roads may fill up,” a city official said in an address today. “As long as that water is not getting out of the road and into your house, we're going to be okay."

Houston Mayor Whitmire said that the city is still “open for business,” as they are monitoring things hourly with all hands on deck and boats as high-water rescue vehicles staged around the region.

Tropical Storm Edouard officially made landfall near Johnson Bayou, Louisiana and is making its way into Texas at about 7 mph.

The National Hurricane Center is warning communities in the storm's path could see as much as 5 to 9 inches of rain and flooding as Edouard pushes inland.

Get the latest forecast details here.

Satellite footage captured Tropical Storm Edouard as the outer reaches of the storm moved inland.

Though the system has not officially made landfall yet, you can already see storm conditions spreading into part of Texas and Louisiana.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire, along with the City of Houston Office of Emergency Management (OEM), held an address to update residents on the city's preparedness efforts.

Residents were advised to stay off the roads, avoid flooded areas, use the TransStar traffic map to track flooded roads, call 311 to report any flooding that persists an hour after the event has ended and text “AlertHouston” to 888777 for updates. Watch the full address here.

The National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory not only dropped hurricane watches for the upper Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, but also the storm surge warnings. 

While this part of the Gulf doesn't have huge contrasts between high and low tides, this landfall is happening around low tide. Even though water levels are running about 1.5 feet above normal water levels, I can't find any gauges near or east of the landfall location where there's significant flooding going on, at least defined by the National Weather Service hydrograph reaching the "minor flooding" threshold.

There may eventually be some actual coastal flooding at some point. But there’s no sign of it yet, helped by a low tide.

Unlike many storms in the Atlantic that come from Africa, Edouard took a more back-door route to development over the last week.

It came from an early-autumn-like cold front that ran out of steam near the Gulf Coast.

More often occurring in the early and late part of hurricane season, these boundaries are known triggers for tropical systems near the Gulf Coast or along the Atlantic Coast.

They already bring moisture and spin along them, and on one side of those boundaries you’ll find some heat, too. Those are some of the ingredients for tropical development.

Once that spin migrates to warmer waters, it can kick off a multi-day metamorphosis into a tropical depression or storm, as we saw with Edouard.

Several Southeast Texas school districts announced that classes would be canceled Tuesday ahead of Tropical Storm Edouard.

Harris County's Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management (HCOHSEM) is updating their site with the latest information for parents, students and staff.

That’s the message from Harris County’s Office of Emergency Management, as shared on Facebook.

Residents in Houston, the county seat of Harris County, and other parts of the county were asked to be off the roads and stay put if possible until the impacts pass.

Late summer rain in Louisiana and Texas can often be “feast or famine.”

Dallas just had its ninth August since 1899 without measurable rain. They haven’t had at least 0.01 inches of rain since the middle of July, now their tenth-longest dry streak on record. 

Lake Charles, Louisiana, had its second-driest July dating to 1895 (0.23 inches). They hadn’t seen measurable rain in three weeks. 

But as meteorologist Jennifer Gray posted earlier, flooding rain is either possible or likely from Edouard in southwest Louisiana and eastern Texas. And at least some rain could finally snap that dry streak in Dallas. 

Drought relief? Yes. Flood threat: Unfortunately, also yes. 

The northern ring of thunderstorms is coming ashore just west of Cameron, Louisiana. This isn't landfall, but we're closing in on that. The worst weather is along the Texas-Louisiana border.

Houston is notorious for flooding during tropical storms and hurricanes, and even during slow-moving thunderstorms any time of year.

The city's geography has a part to play, and urban sprawl is also an issue. Here's more on that and a look at some of the most notable flood events Houston has faced.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport is warning travelers of possible delays and cancellations today because of Edouard.  

The flight-tracking website FlightAware.com wasn’t showing any significant flight changes at the airport when I checked at noon, but if you’re heading there later today when Edouard will be much closer, you’ll definitely want to check your flight’s status.

The National Weather Service in Houston just extended their flood watch into Wednesday evening in eastern Texas, including the Houston metro area. 

They now forecast that isolated peak amounts of 10 to 15 inches are possible in areas where bands of rain “train” or persist over an area for several hours during Edouard through Wednesday.

They emphasized that not everyone will see those high-end amounts, but areas in the east and north Houston metro could see the heaviest rain from Edouard. 

The Houston Independent School District, which has more than 150,000 students, canceled all after-school activities for this afternoon. "We will keep families informed and communicate any changes as needed," said the district in a Facebook post announcing the cancellations.

It’s still a few hours before we see what Edouard’s full force will look like inland. But along Louisiana, near Holly Beach and Peveto Beach, the ocean’s movement is starting to build. Water levels are 1-1.5 feet above typical levels.

These waves are rather slow and gentle now, but as Edouard creeps closer, things are likely to look much different here later today.

Edouard is now the third out of five systems to gain strength right on the northern brim of the Gulf. It isn’t unusual for one or two spots to be a bull's-eye during a hurricane season (see 2004 - Florida or 2020 - Louisiana), but this season comes with a reason.

Much of the deeper tropics is a no-go zone this year because of strong shearing winds being supplied by El Niño. 

Arthur, Bertha and now Edouard have taken advantage of good enough environmental conditions right on the Gulf Coast to form and strengthen a little. It remains to be seen if some September peak of season spice can bring Edouard up to hurricane strength.

As Tropical Storm Edouard’s rainbands begin to move inland over southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas, it brings with it the threat for tornadoes. 

The threat is low, however, since Edouard is expected to continue to strengthen ahead of landfall, there is still a possibility of a few spin-up tornadoes in the front-right sector of the storm.

Edouard is a tiny tropical storm. By that we mean the size of its tropical storm-force winds extend up to only about 25 miles from its center. You can see that in the map below by the tiny orange area.

But that’s what has the National Hurricane Center concerned for quick strengthening before landfall. Tiny storms sometimes can gain strength faster than model forecasts. 

Nineteen years ago, Humberto quickly strengthened from a 40-mph tropical storm to a 90-mph Category 1 hurricane before its landfall along the upper Texas coast in September 2007. 

Edouard likely won’t have as much time over the Gulf to gain as much strength as Humberto did. But its tiny size is the reason the NHC has issued hurricane watches.

The Hurricane Hunters have been investigating Tropical Storm Edouard, and have found stronger winds within the storm. This means the storm has strengthened. Winds are now up to 50 mph, which keeps the storm at tropical storm status. 

The National Hurricane Center expects Edouard to keep strengthening as it approaches the Texas coastline, and could be either a strong tropical storm or hurricane at landfall.

The National Hurricane Center defines landfall as the intersection of the center of a tropical cyclone with a coastline. Not when the rain bands or strongest winds or storm surge reaches land, but when the center of the circulation does. 

This is why storms that clearly impact a coastline sometimes never get credited with a landfall. If the center stays just offshore, while the destructive side of the storm sweeps the shore, there's still no landfall in the record books.

Keep in mind, though, landfall is just terminology; nothing about a storm changes when its center crosses the coast. It’s still bringing all its impacts.

Hurricane Lala’s impact in Hawaii is a prime example.

Not even clouds from Tropical Storm Edouard could spoil a beautiful sunrise captured near Sabine Pass in Port Arthur, Texas, by storm chaser Aaron Jayjack.

When most of us open the radar on our app, we just look at what’s happening over our location. But any of us can actually use the interactive radar feature to Tropical Storm Edouard. Just open it up and then move the map until you see the storm. Here’s how it was looking on my app just before 8 a.m. EDT. 

While the classifications for tropical systems are based on wind speed, it’s the flooding from these storms that can cause the most trouble. 

With Tropical Storm Edouard, flooding will be the biggest concern. We could see as much as 9 inches of rainfall well inland, away from the coast. 

See why tropical systems can produce heavy precipitation far away from the coast. 

Offices for the Texas Department of Public Safety are closed today in multiple counties expected to be impacted by Edouard. Officials just announced the closures in a post on X.

As of Tuesday morning, it has been the second least active start to an Atlantic hurricane season in the past 60 years. That’s using a statistic called the ACE index, which not only counts the number of storms, but also how long they last and how strong they become. 

Despite the five named storms we’ve had, each will have lasted three days or less. 

Only 1988 started out quieter than 2026 through the morning of Sept. 1. While we’re expecting this intensifying El Niño to continue its strong influence, 1988 eventually produced five hurricanes, one of which was Gilbert, one of the most intense on record. 

On average, about 70% of the Atlantic hurricane season’s activity (ACE index) happens from September through November.

Classes are canceled today across multiple Houston-area public school districts, including: Anahuac, Channelview, Cleveland, Crenshaw, Crosby, Galena Park, Dayton, Hardin, Huffman, Humble, Hull-Daisetta, La Porte, Liberty, Pasadena, Sheldon, Splendora, Shepherd, Tarkington.

Schools in the Varnett district will close early at 1 p.m. Lee College is also closed for the day.

As Edouard nears land, you’ll want to be prepared with the latest news and updates (that’s why you’re reading live updates about this storm at this very moment). That means that now is exactly the right time to take 10 seconds to ensure that your weather alerts are enabled. Here’s the link.

Timeline: Rain will begin to move into the Houston area during the late morning hours today, becoming more intense and widespread throughout the evening. The rain chances will continue into Wednesday as the remnants of the storm gradually move north. 

Impacts: The primary threat is heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding. Rainfall totals of 2-5 inches are expected across the metro area with locally higher amounts over 6 inches possible. As a result, a flood watch is in effect for the city from late tonight through 7 A.M. CDT on Wednesday. Houston could also see gusty winds as the storm tracks inland. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the biggest problem expected from the storm is flooding. As much as 6 inches of rain could fall in the greater Houston area and parts of the state’s upper coast could see much more.

Abbott held a briefing with state emergency officials Monday and said the state is prepared. He also urged residents to gather supplies like food, water and gas, adding, “Most importantly, follow guidance from local officials over the next 24 to 48 hours.”