The Brazos River in Richmond is currently at Gage Elevation 9.54. Based on the 7-day extended forecast, no flooding along the Brazos River is anticipated.
This Week
This week will be a mixture of warm and cool weather. High temperatures to start the week will hit in the upper 70’s to possibly the low 80’s until our next cold front arrives on Tuesday/Wednesday. This will bring highs down to the upper 60’s for Wednesday with a return of highs in the mid to upper 70’s for Thanksgiving into the Weekend. The NWS anticipates another cold front pushing through the region over the weekend.
Based on the forecasts, our rain changes for the majority of the week could remain between 20 to 50%, with our highest chance for rain on Tuesday. The forecasts vary slightly, but the majority of the lower Brazos River watershed could see less than ½ inch of rain over the next 7 days with Fort Bend County seeing less than ¼ inch.
Harris County’s MAAPnext
This unrelated to the Brazos River, but a great example of tools being developed in the after math of Hurricane Harvey. Harris County’s MAAPnext, or the Modeling, Assessment and Awareness Project, is a ” transformative step in the management and regulation of Harris County’s floodplains, further contributing to our county’s resilience.”
The program will not only help develop new models and flood maps for Harris County, but enhance the way Harris County communicates with its current and future residents on flood risk. Harris County continues to lead to way when developing modern tools for floodplain management. For more information visit, http://maapnext.org/.
It takes a considerable amount of time and money to run these programs, but this level of effort for building more resistant communities is priceless. This is an approach we would like to see for the entire region or at least the Brazos River Watershed. One of the biggest lessons learned from our recent flooding is that agencies can never communicate too much, as long as they have the correct information about risk and impacts. Tools like these are invaluable when it comes to developing (understanding) and communicating flood risk before, during, and after a flood.
Flood Risk on the Bend 