Heavy Rain Event September 24-25

A heavy rain event occurred across west-central Texas on September 24-25, and resulted in flash flooding in the San Angelo and Sweetwater areas. A strong upper level storm system developed south across the Rockies and western New Mexico, and into the adjacent part of northern Mexico. This interacted with a very moist airmass over the western half of Texas. With this setup, showers and thunderstorms developed across the Big Country and parts of the Concho Valley on the afternoon of the 24th. The coverage was initially scattered, but increased during the evening and early nighttime hours. A large area of showers and thunderstorms gradually overspread the rest of west-central Texas during the overnight hours and early morning of the 25th. Very heavy rainfall led to flash flooding of some roads in the Sweetwater and San Angelo areas (summarized in the table below).

Date/Time	Location (City, County)	Flood Report	Source of Report
Sep. 24, 630 PM	5 miles north of Sweetwater (Fisher County)	Water was reported over Highway 70, a couple of miles south of the HWY 70 & FM2744 intersection.	Fisher County Sheriff Office
Sep. 24, 800 PM	Sweetwater (Nolan County)	Numerous low water crossings along the service roads of I-20 were covered by running water.	Amateur Radio
Sep. 24, 845 PM	Sweetwater (Nolan County)	Numerous streets were barricaded due to high water. A couple of stranded vehicles were towed out of the high water.	Law Enforcement
Sep. 25, 142 AM	San Angelo (Tom Green County)	Four water rescues were reported between 142 AM and 230 AM in San Angelo.	Law Enforcement

Additional areas of showers and thunderstorms affected west-central Texas during the day on the 25th, but the rainfall was not as heavy as what occurred previously.

Figure 1 (below) shows 7-day rainfall amounts, ending at 7 AM CDT September 26. This essentially captures the heavy rain event on September 24-25.

Figure 1: Total Rainfall for the 7-day period ending at 7 AM CDT, Sep. 26

Most of west-central Texas received at least 1-3 inches of rainfall, and there were scattered areas with 3-5 inch amounts. The highest rainfall totals, in excess of 5 inches, occurred at a few locations in the central and northern parts of west-central Texas (light orange shading).