Six people have died in flood related incidents in south-east Texas as a series of thunderstorms, which developed last Thursday, triggered intense and heavy rainfall leading to severe flooding. Washington county was among the hardest hit with nearly 490mm of rain recorded in 24-hours in Brenham, smashing the previous record for the location of 263.6mm in 1994.
The thunderstorms were triggered by a low-pressure system to the west generating a mass of air that remained moist and semi-tropical as it moved across south-east and central Texas. The flooding forced thousands from their homes as their properties were flooded and cars were submerged in the water.
Elsewhere in the US, the season’s second tropical storm, Bonnie, formed in the Atlantic on Saturday, just days before the official start of the hurricane season. Bonnie made landfall as a tropical depression on Sunday morning in South Carolina with 35mph winds. Bands of heavy rain reportedly produced over 200mm, causing flash flooding, closing roads and stranding vehicles.
In Europe, storms Saturday afternoon generated lightning strikes, killing a man in Poland and injuring many others in northern France and south-west Germany. The storms were caused by a very unstable atmosphere over mainland north-west Europe created by a warm and humid air mass meeting colder air higher up in the atmosphere.
The thunderstorms produced hailstones, of up to 1.5cm in diameter, which damaged vineyards in the French wine-producing regions, most notably Cognac, which reportedly had 8% of its vineyards spoiled.
