Central TX faces potential flood risk

AUSTIN (KXAN) - NOAA just released its Flood Forecast for spring. Experts are predicting a good possibility of flooding for Central Texas.

NOAA is forecasting the flooding risk in Central Texas to be above average this spring, and experts blame it on El Niño.

Tuesday's rain is also a result of El Niño. There is no flooding from this storm, but the Pacific storm is dropping steady, light showers.

While the City's Office of Emergency Management does not anticipate any flooding from this storm, that could change this spring.

NOAA forecast flooding in parts of the Midwest, South and East. The highest threat is in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, due to the spring melting of an extensive snowpack.

"We're delivering an urgent message to citizens throughout the country and that message is get ready for flooding this spring," said National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes. "The flood risk is above average over a third of the country."

In Central Texas, NOAA is predicting wetter-than-average conditions with the possibility of flooding.

“In the South and East, where an El Niño-driven winter was very wet and white, spring flooding is more of a possibility than a certainty and will largely be dependent upon the severity and duration of additional precipitation and how fast existing snowcover melts,” said Hayes. “Though El Niño is forecast to continue at least through spring, its influence on day-to-day weather should lessen considerably.”

An El Niño-influenced winter left the area soggier than usual.

"Our major concern in the Southern tier of the United States is our ongoing El Nino," said Hayes. "We have seen throughout the winter that we've had the heavy rains and that's one of the things that we're watching. And that goes roughly from Texas to Florida."

In fact, the area's rainfall totals for the year are doing exceptionally well. Austin's Camp Mabry has a surplus of more than 2 1/2 inches, thanks to the area's wetter-than-normal fall and winter.