Rain on the way Wednesday; floods in Texas

Weather Headlines:

• Tropical Storm Bill dumps more rain on soggy Texas.

• Rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches with some totals to 12 inches over east Texas.

• Bill is second named storm of Atlantic hurricane season.

• Rain and thundershower coverage increases over Minnesota.

• Widespread .25 to .50 inch rainfall totals, with some totals to 1 inch possible.

Bill slogs ashore

When it rains, it pours.

That tired and true weather adage speaks volumes to residents of eastern Texas. Years of extreme drought. Sudden biblical floods in 2015. That's what happens when you live in a climate zone between desert and the deep tropical moisture source we call the Gulf of Mexico. Throw in climate changes that favor all or nothing, and the extremes between drought and flood suddenly become even more extreme.

Expect the unprecedented.

Bill pushes ashore dragging a tail of deep convection from the Gulf of Mexico on his east side. It's an efficient system for evaporating massive moisture plume from Gulf waters, and wringing it out over Texas in the form of heavy downpours. Watch as Bill's spiraling rain bands wrap inland and begin to dump heavy rain.

Flood watches are flying from the Houston NWS.

* AS TROPICAL STORM BILL MOVES NORTHWARD TONIGHT HEAVY RAINS WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP OVER THE AREA AND STREAM INTO THE AREA FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO. WIDESPREAD RAINFALL TOTALS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES EXPECTED EAST OF A COLLEGE STATION TO ANGLETON CORRIDOR WHILE WEST OF THE LINE HEAVIER RAINS WILL BE POSSIBLE. TOTALS OF 4 TO 5 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE WITH ISOLATED TOTALS 9 TO 11 INCHES. 

THE HEAVY RAINS MAY FOCUS NEAR THE COAST LATE IN THE AFTERNOON THEN GRADUALLY SHIFT INLAND AND NORTHWARD IN THE EVENING AS BILL TRACKS NORTHWARD PERHAPS FOCUSING WEST OF THE COLLEGE STATION AND BRENHAM AREAS TOWARD SUNRISE. THE HEAVY RAINS WILL BE LIKELY TONIGHT ESPECIALLY FOR THE WESTERN AREAS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS WHERE INTENSE RAINFALL RATES OF 2 TO 3 INCH PER HOUR MAY OCCUR.

Bill's track pushes into the southern Plains next.

An arc of heavy rains threatens potential flooding all the way from Texas through Oklahoma to St. Louis.

Rainy Minnesota Wednesday

The mean position of the jet stream in June favors Minnesota. That's why we're enjoying waves of low pressure and rain every two to three days. Our next rainmaker pushes through Wednesday right on schedule.

The big blue "H" above easing in from Canada Thursday clears skies once again. A brilliant Thursday before the next low pushes more shower chances our way by late Friday.

Forecast uncertainty increases greatly Friday night into the weekend. The favored timing on the next wave of rain appears to favor late Friday night into Saturday morning. There are hints showers may fade in coverage Saturday afternoon and evening, and that Sunday may be the sunnier and drier day of the weekend. Minnesota rides the edge of a tropical air mass Saturday that could push dew points toward the steamy 70 degree mark.

Timing on the weekend forecast will probably change in the next three days. Stay tuned.

Climate Change Pope?

Pope Francis' long expected climate change encyclical appears to have been leaked early this week. The document is already stirring up a storm of controversy.

What happens when the spiritual leader of the Catholic world speaks out in support of climate science and our moral obligation to be good stewards of the planet we've been given? We're about to find out.

Here's some good insight from the Washington Post.

A draft of a major environmental document by Pope Francis says “the bulk of global warming” is caused by human activity and calls on people — especially the world’s rich — to take steps to mitigate the damage by reducing consumption and reliance on fossil fuels.

In words likely to anger some of his conservative critics, the pope backs the science of climate change, saying “plenty of scientific studies point out that the last decades of global warming have been mostly caused by the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide and others) especially generated by human action.”

“The poor and the Earth are shouting,” reads the draft of the encyclical, the first of its kind dedicated to the environment. The Washington Post translated portions of the draft.

World's aquifers under stress

Maybe the Pope sees something many followers don't?

Swelling populations. Urbanization. Increased drought from climate changes. It all puts stress on stored underground aquifers that have sustained people for centuries. What happens when the aquifers start to go dry?

A new AGU study from Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and others is opening some eyes.

Here's more insight in this piece from the Washington Post.

Drought-stricken California is not the only place draining underground aquifers in the hunt for fresh water.

It’s happening across the world, according to two new studies by U.S. researchers released Tuesday.

Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers – in locations from India and China to the United States and France -- have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water is being removed than replaced from these vital underground reservoirs. Thirteen of 37 aquifers fell at rates that put them into the most troubled category.

“The situation is quite critical,” said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California Irvine-led studies’ principal investigator.