Download The Category 3 Major Hurricane Harvey Report
Pictured: NOAA/NHC 5-day forecast track of Category 3 Major Hurricane Harvey (left) and the storm total rainfall forecast (right).
At 3 PM EDT Hurricane Harvey was upgraded to a category 3 major hurricane. Harvey is located at 27.2N/96.4W or about 75 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, TX. Harvey has maximum sustained wind near 120 mph and is moving northwest at 10 mph with central pressure 943 MB. Harvey should make landfall near or just north of Corpus Christi late this evening.
A wind gust to 57 mph was observed at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station the past hour. Port Aransas measured sustained wind at 49 mph. These observations are 100 miles ahead of Harvey. Implied is potential 100 mph wind near or at these locations, particularly Aransas at landfall this evening.
Storm surge of 1-2 feet has already arrived at Corpus Christi/Port Aransas.
There is no major change to the forecast for the trek to landfall this evening. Harvey finally made category 3 this past hour and should stay in that range to the coast. At landfall sustained hurricane force wind will extend 25-30 miles to the northeast and 15-20 miles to the southwest. Tropical storm force wind extends 120 miles to the northeast and 90 miles to the southwest.
Heavy rain is already into the Texas coast. The heaviest rain directly associated with Harvey will be in the central/south-central Texas coastline. The storm surge forecast has not changed peaking in the 6-12 foot range at the north entrance to Padre Island to Sargent.
Hurricane force wind with the approaching and arriving storm this evening and early Saturday morning slowly diminishes once Harvey is inland. The storm stalls this weekend and tropical storm force wind is likely to linger through Sunday.
Persistent heavy rain and squalls including tornadoes northeast of where Harvey is located all weekend cause 15-25 in. of rain with high spots of 35 in.
Harvey remains forecast to stall inland this weekend and turn slowly back to the coast by Monday night then back inland as a tropical storm in the Houston area Wednesday morning. The risk of this system moving back over the northwest Gulf of Mexico and re-intensifying to a hurricane is now less likely.
