{"id":71307,"date":"2026-07-16T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=71307"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:38:23","slug":"flash-flooding-in-the-hill-country-of-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/71307","title":{"rendered":"Flash flooding in the Hill Country of Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_g18_ir_floodWWA_TX.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window images with plots of Flood Watch\/Warning\/Advisory polygons and 1-hour Precipitation amounts, from 0301-1159 UTC on 16 July<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 <em>(GOES-West)<\/em> Infrared Window images <strong>(<em>above)<\/em><\/strong> included plots of Flood Watch\/Warning\/Advisory polygons (Flash Flood Warnings appeared as red polygons, while Flash Flood Emergencies appeared as bold red polygons) across the Hill Country of Texas on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20260716.html\">16 July 2026<\/a><\/strong>. After the previous few days of heavy rainfall &#8212; which produced amounts in excess of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_kewx_pns.text\">25-28 inches<\/a><\/strong> in Kerr County and Uvalde County &#8212; the high rainfall rates of these latest thunderstorms caused considerable flash flooding (with at least 2 fatalities being reported). Note: a GOES-18 Mesoscale Sector was positioned over Texas at that time, since GOES-19 was still in &#8220;safehold&#8221; mode after experiencing an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ospo.noaa.gov\/data\/messages\/2026\/07\/MSG_20260715_2051.html\">anomaly<\/a><\/strong> on the previous day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A less-cluttered view of 1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window images <strong><em>(below<\/em>)<\/strong> made it easier to see the pulses of cold overshooting tops, and the 1-hour precipitation amounts that occasionally exceeded 1-2 inches at a couple of METAR sites. GOES-18 Rainfall Rate derived product values were as high as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_0800utc_g18_ir_rainRate_TX.png\">1.31 inches per hour<\/a><\/strong> just north of Uvalde at 0804 UTC (the Uvalde METAR site had just received 1.20 inches of rainfall during the previous hour).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_g18_ir_TX.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window images with plots of 1-hour Precipitation amounts, from 0301-1159 UTC on 16 July<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The coldest GOES-18 cloud-top infrared brightness temperature associated with the convection was <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_0648utc_g18_ir_TX_cursor_sample.png\">-77.83 C<\/a><\/strong>; according to a plot of rawinsonde data from Del Rio, Texas <em><strong>(below<\/strong>)<\/em> this temperature was not far below the Most Unstable (MU) air parcel&#8217;s Maximum Parcel Level (MPL), which represented a significant overshoot of its Equilibrium Level (EL).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_0000utc_kdrt_raob.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_0000utc_kdrt_raob.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Plot of rawinsonde data from Del Rio, Texas at 0000 UTC on 16 July [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window images with plots of 1-minute <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goes-r.gov\/spacesegment\/glm.html\">GLM<\/a><\/strong> Flash Points <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> revealed considerable lightning activity with these thunderstorms that produced heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/07\/260716_g18_ir_glm_TX.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window images with plots of 1-minute GLM Flash Points and 1-hour Precipitation amounts, from 0301-1159 UTC on 16 July<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Infrared Window images (above) included plots of Flood Watch\/Warning\/Advisory polygons (Flash Flood Warnings appeared as red polygons, while Flash Flood Emergencies appeared as bold red polygons) across the Hill Country of Texas on 16 July 2026. After the previous few days of heavy rainfall &#8212; which produced amounts in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":71326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,114,16,151,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glm","category-goes-18","category-heavy-rain-flooding","category-l2_readouts","category-lightning"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71307"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71349,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71307\/revisions\/71349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}