Severe thunderstorms move into Brazos Valley

  • Posted: Thursday, May 12, 2011 7:00 a.m.
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Thunderstorms rolled through the Bryan-College Station area and the Brazos Valley on Thursday.
National Weather Service officials said a chance of rain will remain in the forecast tonight with possible severe weather in some areas. The main threats were hail and damaging winds, forecasters said.
In Brazos County, the chance of rain was expected to decrease to 50 percent tonight and 40 percent after midnight. Highs were expected at about 80 during the day, with lows around 70 at night.
A 20 percent of rain is expected in Brazos County Friday morning, with highs in the 80s during the day and lows in the mid 50s at night.
Weather officials also said at about 1 p.m. an area of showers and thunderstorms continued to move east across north Texas. Forecasters said light to moderate rainfall could be expected from showers and thunderstorms in the area. Cloud to ground lightning is the main threat, but some small hail and gusty winds are also possible, according to the weather service.
A severe thunderstorm watch for areas including Brazos, Burleson, Madison, Washington, Grimes, Leon and Milam counties was canceled by 2 p.m. The weather service’s radar at 11:31 a.m. reported a line of severe thunderstorms capable of producing quarter-size hail, along a line from seven miles northeast of College Station to six miles northeast of Snook.
A weather spotter reported nickel-sized hailed at 11:10 a.m. in southwest College Station.
A College Station home was struck by lightning, causing a small fire, but there have been no other reports of weather-related damage.
College Station Utilities has reported only minor power outages.
Bryan Texas Utilities spokesman Bob Wheeler said 800 of the utility company’s customers were affected by power outages beginning at 10:53 a.m. on Texas 21, between Bryan and Caldwell. Outages also hit the areas of Austin’s Colony and Rudder High School about 30 minutes later and the area of North Avenue near Texas Avenue at 2:49 p.m.
Power was restored to those areas within about 20 minutes, Wheeler said. Of customers affected, 82 percent were residential and 18 percent were commercial, he said.
Wheeler said there were a few scattered outages at 3:30 p.m., mainly in rural areas, and crews were out working on repairs.

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