A cold front moved across South Central Texas while the remnants of (Eastern Pacific) Hurricane Manuel moved directly over the region. The combination of lower Gulf moisture and upper level Pacific moisture from Manuel's remnants (interacting along the cold front) produced spotty areas of heavy rains with some rainfall producing flash flooding.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS EWX wrote it up.
A cold front moved across South Central Texas while the remnants of (Eastern Pacific) Hurricane Manuel moved directly over the region. The combination of lower Gulf moisture and upper level Pacific moisture from Manuel's remnants (interacting along the cold front) produced spotty areas of heavy rains with some rainfall producing flash flooding. Rainfall averaged 2-3 inches region-wide with heavier 4-6 inch totals across western Gillespie, Val Verde and Travis (city of Austin) counties.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Austin/San Antonio, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 20, 5:46 AM CST, 59 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 646 AM CDT FRI SEP 20 2013 .AVIATION... GENERALLY MVFR CIGS...OCCASIONALLY IFR CIGS WITH SCT TO NUMEROUS SHRA/TSRA THROUGH 12Z SATURDAY. WINDS WILL BE FROM THE EAST- SOUTHEAST TODAY...SHIFT TO NORTHEAST AFT 00Z...THEN TO NORTH BY 12Z SAT. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 301 AM CDT FRI SEP 20 2013/ SHORT TERM (TODAY THROUGH SATURDAY)... THIS MORNING A MOIST AND UNSTABLE TROPICAL AIRMASS HAS OVERSPREAD SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS. THE LATEST AWIPS BLENDED TOTAL PWAT PRODUCT DEPICTED VALUES OF 2.1 TO 2.4 INCHES. THIS IS A GOOD INDICATOR FOR HEAVY RAINFALL. THE COMBINATION OF PACIFIC TROPICAL MOISTURE FROM THE REMNANTS OF MANUEL...DEEPENING GULF MOISTURE AND CONVERGENCE ALONG AN APPROACHING COLD FRONT WILL RESULT IN NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS THE REGION TODAY AND TONIGHT. LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL IS LIKELY. WE WILL EXTEND THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH TO INCLUDE ALL OF THE HILL COUNTRY AND ADJACENT COUNTIES ALONG THE I-35 CORRIDOR FROM SAN ANTONIO NORTHEASTWARD. ADDITIONAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE EXPECTED WITH ISOLATED 6 INCH AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. THE THREAT FOR FLASH FLOODING WILL BE HIGHEST LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO THE EARLY MORNING HOURS ON SATURDAY AS THE WEAK FRONT DRIFTS SOUTHWARD INTO THE HILL COUNTRY AS UPPER LEVEL ENERGY EJECTS NORTHEASTWARD ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS. THIS PATTERN WILL RESULT IN THE TRAINING OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IN THE VICINITY OF THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY. THE THREAT FOR HEAVY RAINFALL WILL SHIFT SOUTHWARD TO THE COAST ON SATURDAY AS A SFC LOW FORMS OVER SE TEXAS. HIGHS TODAY AND SATURDAY WILL BE WILL BE A FEW DEGREES BELOW NORMAL DUE TO THE CLOUDS AND RAINFALL. LONG TERM (SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY)... SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE MOVING OUT OF OUR SE COUNTIES LATE SATURDAY NIGHT AS THE UPPER LEVEL TROF AXIS BECOMES SITUATED TO THE EAST AND SOUTHEAST OF OUR CWFA. A DRY WEATHER PATTERN IS EXPECTED SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY OF NEXT WEEK AS ZONAL FLOW ALOFT TRANSITIONS TO THE SOUTHWEST. AFTERNOON HIGHS WILL SEE A GRADUAL WARMING TREND WITH LOWER TO MID 90S EXPECTED BY THE LATTER HALF OF NEXT WEEK. THE WARMUP MAY BE AFFECTED BY SOIL MOISTURE. HIGHER SOIL MOISTURE VALUES WILL SLOW THE WARMUP. && .EWX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... FLASH FLOOD WATCH THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES: BANDERA...BEXAR...BLANCO...BURNET...COMAL...EDWARDS... GILLESPIE...HAYS...KENDALL...KERR...KINNEY...LLANO...MAVERICK... MEDINA...REAL...TRAVIS...UVALDE...VAL VERDE...WILLIAMSON. && MESOSCALE/AVIATION...26 SYNOPTIC/GRIDS...13 PUBLIC SERVICE/DATA COLLECTION...30
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX 551 AM CDT FRI SEP 20 2013 TXZ171>173-183>194-202>209-217>225-228-211100- LLANO-BURNET-WILLIAMSON-VAL VERDE-EDWARDS-REAL-KERR-BANDERA- GILLESPIE-KENDALL-BLANCO-HAYS-TRAVIS-BASTROP-LEE-KINNEY-UVALDE- MEDINA-BEXAR-COMAL-GUADALUPE-CALDWELL-FAYETTE-MAVERICK-ZAVALA- FRIO-ATASCOSA-WILSON-KARNES-GONZALES-DE WITT-LAVACA-DIMMIT- 551 AM CDT FRI SEP 20 2013 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT... A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR LOCATIONS ALONG AND WEST OF INTERSTATE 35 AND ALONG AND NORTH OF U.S. HIGHWAY 90. THIS INCLUDES THE RIO GRANDE PLAINS...EDWARDS PLATEAU...HILL COUNTRY...AND I-35 CORRIDOR THROUGH 7 AM SATURDAY MORNING. LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN IS LIKELY WITH AVERAGE RAINFALL TOTALS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES AND A FEW SPOTS RECEIVING UP TO 6 INCHES. FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE AND RIVERS WILL RISE AND MAY FLOOD AS WELL. TURN AROUND... DON'T DROWN. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY... RAIN WILL TAPER OFF QUICKLY ON SATURDAY MORNING. NO ADDITIONAL HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... STORM SPOTTERS SHOULD BE PREPARED TO PROVIDE HEAVY RAIN AND FLASH FLOOD REPORTS FROM 3 PM TODAY THROUGH 7 AM SATURDAY. ONLY REPORT IF YOU CAN DO IT SAFELY.
The Laughlin AFB radar (KDFX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 12:43 UTC.
5 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Road closed at HWY 163 AND 90W with 1 to 2ft of water over roadway.
Several low lying streets across the city were flooded, including Railway at Delarosa.
There was two feet of water over the roadway at low water crossing on Alfred Petsch Rd near the Pedernales River. The road was closed due to high water at the low water crossing at Pfiester Rd near the Pedernales River.
Several roads were closed from South Austin Park to Battle Bend Park to Woods of Legend Oaks Park.
There was water over Highway 539 near Sutherland Springs Cemetery.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, September 2013
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 475092, 475093, 476476, 475094, 475096.