Meteorologists say the National Weather Service worked in Texas
“This was the signal there that it was going to be a heavy, a pretty rainy event,” Vagasky said. “But you can’t pinpoint exactly where it falls. You can’t do that.”
Flash floods in this area of Texas are nothing new. The state’s 8-inch rainfall “can be a day that ends in Y,” says Matt Lanza, a certified digital meteorologist based in Houston. He is challenging to balance how to properly prepare the public for these rare but serious storms with predictions that often show extreme amounts of rainfall.
“It’s very difficult to warn about this. I don’t look at this to civil servants who don’t know meteorology and don’t see this every day to see how quickly these things change,” says Lanza. “The biggest thing really is that you have to be vigilant whenever there is a risk of heavy rain in Texas.”
And meteorologists say the NWS did Send appropriate warnings when updated information is obtained. By Thursday afternoon, it was published Flood clock For local areas, flash flood warnings were enabled by 1am on Friday. The agency issued flash floods emergency Warning by 4:30am.
“Weather services were in the ball,” says Vagasky. “They were sending out a message.”
But as a local outlet, kxan First reportedit appears that the first flood warning posted by a civil servant on Facebook at 5am hours after the NWS issued the warning was sent to Facebook.
“Obviously there was a breakdown between when the warning was issued and the way people got it. I think that’s something that really needs to be talked about,” says Lanza.
Wired has contacted the city of Kerrville and the Texas emergency management department to request comment on the KXAN report.
The cuts made by NOAA as part of President Donald Trump’s government efficiency (DOGE) efforts, made headlines this year. Over 500 Staff from the beginning of the year, leaving some offices One night’s anxiety. Important programs have also been cut satellite It helps to track extreme weather. Meteorologists have repeatedly said these cuts make extreme weather even more difficult, and can become fatal as climate change increases rainfall beyond storms. But both Vagasky and Lanza say that this week’s forecasts were solid.
“We just want people to understand that the San Antonio Prediction Office has done a great job,” Vagansky said. “They issued a warning, and this was an extreme event. The rainfall rate over the last six hours has been more than 1,000 years.
Some of the first changes made at NOAA for Doge Cuts are Weather balls will be released It has been completely reduced or eliminated across the country. However, the balloons unfolded this week have since been released. It was sent to Texas On Thursday it showed a slow-moving, wind-saturated atmosphere, giving heads-ups on the possibility of extreme rainfall.
“This data is useful,” says Lanza. “Maybe it’s probably worse, do you know? If you don’t have this data, you’re blind.”