Heavy rainfall headed for North Texas

A tropical disturbance churning across the Gulf of Mexico will likely bring more flooding to some parts of North Texas.

“We still think we will see some flooding problems,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Jamie Gudmestad. “It should start Tuesday afternoon and last into Wednesday.”

A flash flood watch will go into effect at 7 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday evening for all of North Texas, with forecasters calling for 2 to 4 inches of rain. The heaviest totals are expected to be east of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A flash flood watch was also in effect for a large part of Southeast Texas.

“The areas east of I-35 should see heavier totals but we still have several places along the Trinity River in in flood stage so it wouldn’t take much to cause problems,” Gudmestad said.

In North Texas, there’s a 60 percent chance of rain on Tuesday and a 70 percent chance on Wednesday.

The storm system is expected to become Tropical Storm Bill before making landfall, and the National Weather Service office in Houston said 6 to 8 inches of rain is possible in Southeast Texas if the system behaves as computer models predict.

Emergency management officials in Galveston County issued a voluntary evacuation of the Bolivar Peninsula, where most structures were wiped out in Hurricane Ike in 2008.

With the storm approaching, Gov. Greg Abbott announced an elevated activation of the Texas State Operations Center. State resources have also been staged for rapid deployment.

“As this tropical system develops, the state stands ready to provide support to communities as needed, and we urge Texans to closely monitor the changing weather conditions in their area and heed warnings from local and state officials,” said Abbott. “Any additional rainfall will exacerbate already saturated grounds, which could quickly lead to dangerous flash flooding and extended river flooding.”

Domingo Ramirez Jr. contributed to this report, which contains information from The Associated Press.

This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 8:07 AM with the headline "Heavy rainfall headed for North Texas."