Cristobal: Much more than meets the ‘eye’

Cristobal last Weekend on its way to Louisiana courtesy NBC

HOUSTON – On Monday, a leftover feeder band from Cristobal met the coastal sea breeze dropping 3.84″ of rain in Galveston County’s Willow Bayou at Baker Road, but other than that....this storm will just be remembered by us as the hard-to-pronounce third storm of this season.

Responsible for at least four deaths and $186 million in damage (so far), Cristobal proved to be the kind of tropical storm we all dread — the slow mover. The RainMaker. Along the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida Gulf coasts, 6-8″ of rain was common with as much as a foot near Lake City, Florida (just follow I-10 East and you’ll get there).

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Flooding Rain for the Northern Gulf Coast

But before Cristobal arrived in the US, it parked itself over Mexico and Guatemala, producing horrendous amounts of rain —as much as 25″

Rain fall over the Yucatan

Here is what that looks like in a Tweet from Javier Alatorre:

And here’s at look at the destruction:

Cristobal is likely to set all kinds of records in, if nothing else, the extent of travel and damage from Central America to the Great Lakes. Sam Lillo, who you should follow on Twitter if you don’t already, noticed this bit of trivia:

And so we’re off and running, let’s just hope any storms that move our way run a bit faster than this one.

— Frank

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About the Author:

KPRC 2's chief meteorologist with four decades of experience forecasting Houston's weather.