Alex Makes Landfall as a Cat 2 in Soto La Marina, Mexico

Alex has officially made landfall in the Soto La Marina municipality of Mexico, about 110 miles south of Brownsville, Texas as a category 2 Storm. Note that the entire Brownsville area of Texas is being affected, power is out in most places and there is street flooding. Shelters in Brownsville have reached capacity and they dodged a big bullet but did not dodge hurricane conditions and some damage.

This is the beautiful beach that got the honor of the official landfall of Alex.




And, the troubles from Alex will continue for the next few days as areas on both sides of the border will suffer flooding rains, flash floods and the situation could be even more devastating depending on how fast Alex moves. Much like Floyd making landfall ... all the media was set up on the beach for the perfect shot, yet the drama unfolded inland over the next few days with inland flooding.

It's now the National Weather Service's job to give warnings throughout West and South Texas to prepare people for deteriorating and dangerous conditions.

From the NHC's official statement:

HURRICANE ALEX MADE LANDFALL AROUND 9 PM CDT...0200 UTC
ALONG THE COAST OF MEXICO IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF SOTO LA MARINA...
ABOUT 110 MI...180 KM SOUTH OF BROWNSVILLE. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED
WINDS AT LANDFALL WERE ESTIMATED TO BE 105 MPH...165 KM/HR...A
CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE WIND SCALE.

Note... a flash flood advisory has already been issued for San Angelo, Texas far inland.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/sjt/

THIS AFTERNOON SCATTERED CONVECTIVE ACTIVITY WILL BECOME MORE
WIDESPREAD AND WITH GREATER INTENSITY AS INSTABILITY PEAKS. WITH
PRECEPITABLE WATER VALUES BETWEEN 1.7 AND 2.0 INCHES...LOCALLY
HEAVY RAINFALL IS LIKELY...AND A FLOOD WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR
COUNTIES WHERE RECENT RAINFALL HAS OCCURRED THROUGH THURSDAY AT 7
PM. A SHORT BREAK IN PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED LATER TONIGHT AND
THEN OUTER BANDS FROM HURRICANE ALEX WILL BRING WIDESPREAD SHOWERS
AND THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS WEST CENTRAL TEXAS THROUGH THURSDAY
NIGHT.

The drama has just begun, this is Act 2 now... the real story continues.

Financially, the beaches of South Coastal Texas make a good portion of their money over a few holiday weekends of the year, this is one of them and they took a bit hit here even though they dodged the eye.

Triva wise I want to say that in the same way that this wave was a large, diffuse, messy tropical wave covering a large part of the Carib... this hurricane maintained it's early signature of having a huge, large, messy area of tropical weather even as a hurricane and places far away from the eye will be getting weather tonight from Alex.

Once... a long, long time ago a weather friend asked me my choice of places to spend a hurricane with him... well you know how us weather trackers and chasers are... a little weather obsessed... along with a hotel room in Nola looking out on the city was standing in the wild surf in Texas near Brownsville watching a hurricane come in and toasting the storm with tequila. It's been a great visual in my mind for a long time. I may have chosen the hotel room in Nola... they chose the wild surf in Texas.

Sweet Tropical Dreams ;)

Bobbi
Can almost taste the tequila and the taste of the wild surf ;)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySdRUWYJhsk