Here's Why the Deadly Storm Quickly Intensified in Texas
'It's the prolonged excessive rainfall over one area that makes them so dangerous,' said Emily Heller, a meteorologist with the Austin-San Antonio National Weather Service office.
The catastrophic weather in Kerr County occurred with a steady stream of moisture flowing in from the Gulf and pulling in remnant moisture from a former tropical storm that soaked Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula earlier in the week.
It was as if a completely saturated sponge overhead was wrung out.
'When there's a lot of moisture in the air, like there was over the last couple of days, it can initiate these clusters of storms that are pretty small in spatial scale but can have really intense rain rates,' said Russ Schumacher, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University.
Earlier in the week, the forecast for July 4 called for a chance of rain on Thursday and potentially drier weather on Friday. But by early Thursday morning, it had begun to shift, and a chance for thunderstorms with torrential rainfall had entered the forecast.
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Image Under the Trump administration, the Weather Service, like other federal agencies, has been pushed to reduce its number of employees. Credit... Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times Typically, Mr. Sokich said, the Weather Service will send an official to meet regularly with local emergency managers for what are called 'tabletop operations' — planning ahead of time for what to do in case of a flash flood or other major weather disaster. But the Trump administration's pursuit of fewer staff members means remaining employees have less time to spend coordinating with local officials, he said. The Trump administration has also put strict limits on new hires at the Weather Service, Mr. Sokich said. So unlike during previous administrations, when these vacancies could have quickly been filled, the agency now has fewer options. The Trump administration also froze spending on travel, he added, making it even harder for Weather Service staff members to meet with their state and local counterparts. That does not mean there is not room for cuts at the Weather Service, Mr. Sokich said. 'But you need to do them deliberately and thoughtfully,' he said. David Montgomery and Judson Jones contributed reporting.
