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Tropical Storm Harold brought heavy rains and strong winds to a parched Gulf Coast and Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday.
By Tuesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center had downgraded it to a tropical depression. The system moved into Mexico, where forecasters expected it to eventually dissipate.
The system made landfall on North Padre Island around 10 a.m., after forming in the Gulf of Mexico just after midnight on Tuesday. It then pushed into the upper portions of South Texas by midday, bringing rain to Laredo and south of San Antonio.
In a statement on Tuesday, the City of Corpus Christi reported some flooded streets and highway turnarounds. Corpus Christi International Airport reported several delayed and cancelled flights. "Waves up to six feet have pushed the water to the dunes," the statement explained, "and beach access roads are underwater."
Flash flood warnings and wind gusts were issued in the Coastal Bend area until late Tuesday afternoon.
By Wednesday, the system was expected to cut through the Mexican state of Coahuila before dissipating near Big Bend.
As seen from downtown San Antonio, the northern edges of Harold darkened the southern horizon, and a steady sprinkle of rain soaked the streets and sidewalks. There were scattered reports of rainfall throughout the San Antonio metro area.
Even for the areas that remained dry, the overcast skies offered a respite from the broiling summer sunshine.
Temperatures in the region were expected to fall into the 90s on Tuesday and Wednesday, in part because of Harold. Triple digit temperatures were expected to return later in the week for most of Texas.
The weeks of late August and all of September typically comprise the busiest part of the hurricane season.
Some meteorologists have measured warmer than usual temperatures in Gulf waters, which would provide a lot of fuel for strong tropical systems. Because of that, they expected a spike in activity like the one seen in recent days.
Others were not sure how El Niño, which unleashes wind shear that rips storms apart, would affect overall tropical system development. The climate phenomenon, which also spikes temperatures around the world, was expected to dominate this season.
Matt Lanza with Space City Weather, who spoke with Houston Public Media in mid-August, explained that the opposing forces made it difficult to predict the number and intensity of storms that might emerge over the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf in 2023.
“Which element do you put more faith in?" he said. "Do you put more faith in the fact that the water has never been this warm or the fact that we have El Niño and there’s a very good historical relationship between El Niño and lower than average Atlantic activity and that really is the forecast for the rest of this hurricane season?”
Lanza said coastal populations must join the weather experts in their vigilance.
“We’ve obviously going to keep watching. It only takes one storm," he explained. "You only need a little bit of time for a storm to really get going, but on the whole, this could end up being one of those hurricane seasons where we can skate through it, barely, but hopefully without too much heartburn.”
NPR recently reported that scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration updated their prediction for the storm season from a "near-normal" to an "above-normal level of activity." NOAA predicted 14 to 21 named storms — tropical storms and hurricanes.
The Atlantic hurricane season ends on Nov. 30.
Gaige Davila, Jack Morgan, Marian Navarro and HPM's Jack Williams contributed to this report.
