Heavy rain caused more than 70 road closures as flash flood watch extends into Monday

By Liz Teitz, Staff writer

Updated 7:04 pm CDT, Sunday, September 9, 2018

Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to reflect the alert as a flash flood watch.

UPDATE: 3:07 p.m.

The National Weather Service has extended a flash flood watch for San Antonio and much of Central Texas though 9 a.m. Monday.

Though little rain is expected the rest of Sunday, the watch was extended because of how saturated the area has become and how sensitive the region is to additional rain that is expected overnight and into the morning, NWS reported in a release.

The southern portion of the Hill Country, the Rio Grande plains south of Del Rio and most areas along and east of Interstate 35 can expect to see additional amounts of up to a half inch of rain through the morning.

Though some isolated areas can expect to see 3 to 5 inches more, according to the NWS.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are also expected late Monday afternoon and into the evening.

UPDATE: 1:20 p.m.

The flash flood watch for the San Antonio area has been extended by the National Weather Service until 4:45 p.m. A warning for New Braunfels and San Marcos was extended until 4:15 p.m.

UPDATE: 11 a.m.

The National Weather Service has extended its flash flood watch for the San Antonio area until 1:45 p.m.

Forecasters also report the San Antonio River near Elmendorf is expected to go into moderate flood stage because of all the heavy rain.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES

A flash flood warning is in effect for Bexar County until 1:45 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Heavy storms overnight have forced the closure of at least 70 roads by 9:00 a.m., according to the county, including the lower level of North IH-35 downtown.

A preliminary report issued by the NWS at 6 a.m. showed parts of the San Antonio area received close to 4 inches of rain since midnight.

A flash flood watch was extended for much of South-Central Texas through 7 p.m. Sunday.

RELATED: 24-hour rainfall totals for San Antonio suburbs during the Labor Day storms

Flash flood warnings are in effect for the following areas until these times:

• San Antonio, Universal City, Converse – 10:45 a.m.
• New Braunfels, San Marcos, Kyle – 10:15 a.m.
• Lakehills, Lake Medina Shores, Bandera – 10:00 a.m.

The continuing rain is forcing closures at several area parks: Comanche Park 1 & 3, Raymond Russell Park, Bullis Park is closed and Rodriquez Park are all closed.

“It’s difficult to tell where the showers will actually pop up, and how long they’ll linger in one area, but the potential (for heavier rain) is there for the whole area,” NWS meteorologist Yvette Benavides said.

Rain over the last week has saturated the ground, increasing the likelihood of flooding, she said.

On Sept. 1, San Antonio was more than 7 inches behind its average rainfall totals for the year, but just a week later, it has exceeded that amount.

As of Saturday, the city had measured 21.97 inches of rain in 2018, just over the normal amount of 21.8 inches, Benavides said.

The outlook for the rest of the week is a little sunnier, with a much lower chance of rain through Friday if the cold front moves out as expected Sunday evening.

Showers should taper off Monday, she said.

Residual rain could fall throughout the week, but will likely be “very isolated during the daytime,” she said, with just a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms through Thursday night, climbing to 30 percent on Friday.

The weather service was predicting temperatures with highs in the 80s and lows just above 70 degrees for the rest of the week.

LTeitz@express-news.net | @LizTeitz

Staff writers Ismael Perez and Chris Quinn contributed to this report.