Even more rain has fallen in Odessa and at Midland Air and Space Port over the past 24 hours, possibly bringing to mind Noah’s Ark.
The National Weather Service reported that .15 inches fell at the airport and .20 inches in Odessa.
Roads are overflowing in spots with rain. Justin Lopez, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said patchy fog was expected to continue at least until early afternoon Wednesday and the rain was expected to come to an end by the afternoon hours, especially toward evening.
The afternoon was expected to feature mostly cloudy skies with peeks of sun every once in a while.
It was predicted to be 76 degrees Wednesday and there was still a potential for off-and-on showers Wednesday morning. The showers were expected to be very light.
“We’re expecting shower activity to really taper on down,” Lopez said. “It’s already looking pretty calm now.”
There was a very light shower in northern Ector County, but that was expected to fade away, too.
Drying out and warming up was expected on Thursday along with a high of 83 degrees, Lopez said.
There might be an isolated shower or thunderstorm in the afternoon (a 20 percent chance), otherwise mostly sunny skies.
Air traffic hasn’t been significantly affected by the recent rain, Lopez said.
The Permian Basin Chapter of the American Red Cross’ shelter at Refuge Ministries, 1211 E 57th St., Odessa,is still open and on stand-by for anyone who may need a safe place to stay. Currently, they don’t have a closing date, as they continue to monitor the rain. The community can still call 1-800-RED-CROSS for assistance.
Brian Curran, science and operations officer at the National Weather Service in Midland, said Sept. 3 that there was a pattern set up for very heavy rainfall. This pattern is unusual as the area usually gets hit or miss rain or thunderstorms.
“We had a pattern set up where it was favorable with a cold front coming down, abundant moisture coming up from Gulf and an upperlevel low that right now is sitting over near Monahans,” Curran said.
This is what he called a stratiform rain and it’s somewhat unusual for this time of year. Curran said it usually occurs in the October-November time frame.
According to the National Weather Service website, “precipitation, in general, is relatively continuous and uniform in intensity (i.e., steady rain versus rain showers). These occur between the active convective bands of a hurricane outside of the eye wall.”
According to the Hydrologic Engineering Center website, convective rainfall “occurs when warm, moist air rises into the atmosphere and condenses into rain. It’s caused by the sun heating the Earth’s surface, which in turn warms the air above it. As the air rises, it expands and cools, which causes condensation and the formation of clouds.”
Household Hazardous Waste will be closed again due to weather conditions.
The City of Midland reports that all low-water crossing gates are again open.
