September 3, 2026

East and southeast Texas carry the heaviest conditions in the country this morning. The Weather Prediction Center holds a moderate risk of excessive rainfall, the third of its four levels, over southeast Texas, east Texas, and southwest Louisiana, and expanded the area to take in additional counties. Moderate risk means numerous flash floods are expected, not merely possible.

The National Weather Service reported that 10 to 21 inches of rain had already fallen across parts of the affected area with more falling, at rates between 1 and 5 inches per hour. Flash flood emergencies, the most serious flood product the National Weather Service issues, were in effect for parts of the area. The heaviest totals concentrated over Hardin, Tyler, and Polk counties. Houston, by contrast, has taken less than half an inch.

The Weather Prediction Center describes periodic backbuilding clusters through the period, with rain rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour and precipitable water values of 2 to 2.25 inches. Backbuilding means new cells keep forming over the same ground rather than moving off it, which is why a stalled system produces totals that a faster one never would.

The National Hurricane Center has issued its final advisory on Edouard and handed the flood threat to the Weather Prediction Center. The depression was forecast to become a post-tropical remnant low early today and dissipate later today. That is a change in who issues the product, not a signal that the rain has stopped.

The action, if you are in the affected counties, is to stay off the roads while warnings are active. The National Weather Service's Turn Around, Don't Drown guidance exists because water across a road hides what the road is doing underneath it, and most flood deaths happen in vehicles. Flood watches remain posted from the upper Texas coast into eastern Texas.

Arkansas, Oklahoma, and most of New Mexico have no risk area drawn over them today. Southern New Mexico sits near the edge of a marginal excessive rainfall risk associated with monsoonal moisture being drawn north by Tropical Storm Marie, which is off the southwest coast of Mexico.

More than 76,000 customers were without power across southeast Texas, with Jefferson County hardest hit at 28,566 and Hardin County at 16,605. Port Arthur recorded the area's strongest gust at 90 miles per hour, with other locations reporting 60 to 71 miles per hour.

County offices in Jefferson, Orange, Chambers, and Liberty counties were closed. School districts including Conroe and Willis cancelled classes, and Shepherd, Livingston, and Coldspring-Oakhurst ran delays. If you have children in those districts, the district's own channel is the authority on today's status.

If you are running a portable generator, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidance is specific: operate generators outdoors only, at least 20 feet from homes and buildings, with the exhaust directed away from windows, doors, and vents. Never run one in a garage, even with the door open. The same guidance calls for working carbon monoxide alarms on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas, tested monthly. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get outside immediately and then call 911. That is from the Commission's May 27, 2026 release and its generator safety publication, both checked today.

Water quality notices after flooding come from individual utilities rather than from any national feed. No boil water notice for the affected Texas systems could be confirmed this run, which is not the same as confirming there is none. Your own utility's notices are the authority on whether your tap water is safe today.

The National Interagency Fire Center's September 1 situation report lists no large uncontained fires in the region.

No public health advisories specific to the region were confirmed this run. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Health Alert Network archive could not be read without JavaScript, so this brief makes no claim about national health advisories in either direction.

The health items that follow flooding are practical rather than announced: carbon monoxide from generators, which the guidance above addresses, and food that has been without refrigeration. If your power has been out, your local health department and your utility are the sources that apply to your address.

The near term question is how quickly the rain shuts off. The remnant low was forecast to dissipate later today, but rivers and creeks in east Texas respond after the rain rather than during it. Areas that took 10 or more inches will see water rise in channels for a day or more after the sky clears. If you live near a creek in Hardin, Tyler, or Polk counties, river forecasts from your local National Weather Service office are the product to follow now, not the radar.

The Atlantic basin behind this is empty. As of this morning the National Hurricane Center's two day and seven day outlooks both show no disturbances. For Louisiana and the Texas coast that is the window to restock what this week used, replace batteries, and refuel vehicles before the next system has a name.

There is one genuine piece of good news in the rainfall. The United States Drought Monitor released September 2, using data through August 25, recorded major degradations across the Southern Plains and the Lower Mississippi River valley, with 56.61 percent of the lower 48 states in drought. This week's rain fell on some of that ground. The next Monitor release will show what it did, and rain that arrives this fast does more for reservoirs than for soil.

For New Mexico, monsoon season is winding down and the seasonal turn is toward autumn fire weather in cured grasses. Nothing today requires action there.