Texas could face severe weather from Hurricane Pamela

Many areas of Texas are bracing for heavy rain and possible flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Pamela. The National Hurricane Center says the storm, which has top winds of 80 mph, is expected to make landfall Wednesday morning along the western coast of Mexico.

The National Weather Service has issued flash flood watches and flood watches that take effect Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning for a large swath of the state. The affected areas stretch from Del Rio in South Texas up past Dallas and Denton in North Texas.

Jon Zeitler, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office, says the storm system will weaken by the time it arrives in Texas but will still bring moderate to heavy rain.

"From San Antonio to Dallas-Fort Worth and over east to Bryan College Station, places like Tyler, Longview -- that entire area, just about everybody's going to get between two and five inches over the next couple days," Zeitler said.

Zeitler says the highest risk for flooding will come Wednesday and Thursday in areas where precipitation forms into “training” patterns.

“Where the storms just line up -- just like train cars passing the same point on a railroad track. Imagine if you had a bunch of train cars that each dumped a little bit of water in the same location," he said. "After a while, you’ve got a lot of water. So it’s that kind of a situation.”

Zietler adds certain parts of Texas could get up to 10 inches of rain by Friday.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management on Twitter urged residents to “stay weather aware” and heed local warnings about severe weather.

Drier skies are forecast over the weekend, along with the state’s first substantial cold front of the season.