More severe storms possible in Central Texas as Austin recovers from hailstorm damage
Central Texas is bracing for another potential round of storms after midnight Thursday, as Austin continues to recover from a massive hailstorm that caused widespread damage across the city and led to power loss for tens of thousands of customers.
The supercell storm produced large hail that shattered glass near the top of the Capitol rotunda and at the entrances of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Significant damage also occurred at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, home to the Texas Longhorns baseball team and the scheduled site for the NCAA Tournament's Austin Regional starting Friday.
In addition, the roof over the pumps at a Shell gas station on the 7500 block of North MoPac Expressway collapsed while drivers were still inside their vehicles.
These storms are part of a broader severe weather pattern expected across the region this week, marking the third consecutive day of heavy rainfall. Isolated to scattered storms are likely to continue through the weekend before clear skies return Sunday, just in time for a large Saharan dust plume to hover over the city through late next week, bringing hazy skies and low-quality air conditions.
The National Weather Service is warning that more severe storms could develop late Thursday and continue into early Friday morning. This is because a weather disturbance — basically a ripple of energy in the upper atmosphere — is moving through northwest Texas.
This disturbance will interact with a cold front that's moving south, helping to trigger scattered thunderstorms across West Texas during Thursday afternoon and evening, and will move into the southern Edward Plateau and Hill Country after midnight.
Severe storms within the complex may produce large hail and damaging winds.
"In addition to the severe threat, pockets of high rainfall rates are likely but impossible to determine exactly where in this mesoscale environment," the National Weather Service office wrote in the forecast. "This could lead to isolated instances of flash flooding, especially if the heavier rates set up across any areas that have received heavy rainfall the past few days (eastern Hill Country and I-35 corridor from San Antonio through Austin)."
Chances for showers and thunderstorms continue Friday night into Saturday as mid-level moisture from Tropical Storm Alvin, the first named storm of 2025, over the eastern Pacific is expected to stream northward across Mexico toward the Rio Grande and potentially reach Central Texas.
"Some of this moisture may reinforce shower activity along a stalling frontal boundary, and ensemble guidance indicates that a transient west-east oriented trough axis over northern Mexico may also help enhance divergence aloft over our area," the forecast states. "While the bulk of the tropical moisture is more likely to be to our south given generally northwesterly mid-level flow, there is decent medium-range support for isolated to scattered showers and storms over our region Saturday."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Central Texas may face more severe storms after Austin hail damage
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