THE WEATHER BEAT · SEP 2

Edouard Comes Ashore at Johnson Bayou.

By The Weather Rock · September 2, 2026, 7:22 a.m. EDT · 13 min read

The rock's morning read on what the country's weather did yesterday, and what is officially expected today. Sources are the wire products themselves, cited as they read.

Yesterday: Edouard came ashore

The wait ended Tuesday afternoon. At 2:20 p.m. CDT on September 1, radar out of Lake Charles and Houston put the center of Tropical Storm Edouard over the marsh at Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, just east of the Texas line. The National Hurricane Center's landfall update estimated maximum sustained winds at 60 mph and a central pressure of 996 mb. The near-hurricane the previous day's advisories had left room for never showed up; Edouard spent its morning holding at 50 mph, added a little strength in the final hours, and crossed the coast as a solid but ordinary tropical storm.

The wind did its loudest work right at the corner of the two states. The National Ocean Service station at Texas Point, Texas caught a sustained wind of 57 mph and a gust to 71 mph just before landfall, and Port Arthur gusted to 49 mph an hour later as the center passed close to the city. By 10 p.m. EDT, the Weather Prediction Center's first storm summary described a very compact storm crawling northwest at 7 mph, with its heaviest bands producing rain at 2 to 3 inches per hour. Overnight the center crossed into the Piney Woods of east Texas, and the Houston office estimated 6 to 8 inches had already fallen close to the core by 2 a.m. CDT.

Landfall, by the numbers

Source: NHC Tropical Cyclone Updates for Edouard issued 2 p.m., 2:25 p.m., and 3 p.m. CDT September 1, and WPC Storm Summary Number 1, issued 11 p.m. EDT September 1. The gust list is that summary's preliminary selection.

Yesterday: a 98 mph gust in Nebraska and a treefall evening in the East

While the Gulf Coast watched Edouard, the two Slight Risk areas from Monday's outlooks both produced. The louder number came from the Plains. A Nebraska Mesonet station near Fordyce, in Cedar County, measured a 98 mph wind gust at 8:32 p.m. CDT. Minutes earlier a tractor trailer was tipped onto its side near the Highway 12 and US 81 junction, and 12 inch tree limbs came down across the town of Wynot. The same storms threw large hail across the Nebraska and South Dakota border country: stones to 2.75 inches at Pickstown, South Dakota at 5:18 p.m. CDT, and baseball size hail at Niobrara, Nebraska at 7:44 p.m. CDT that broke a vehicle windshield. The night ended in Minnesota, where an AWOS station at the Mayo Helipad in Rochester gusted to 68 mph at 1:35 a.m. CDT with large trees down and power outages.

The East's version was quieter per report and much wider. From about 6:12 p.m. EDT, when county dispatch in Meadville, Pennsylvania began reporting multiple trees and power lines down, storms worked southeast across Pennsylvania through the evening: Berks, Chester, Carbon, Lehigh, and Bradford counties fill page after page of the report log with trees on wires and closed roads. After dark the line reached Delaware and South Jersey. New Castle County, Delaware logged multiple roads closed by downed trees around Wilmington and Newark, and Gloucester and Salem counties in New Jersey reported numerous trees and power lines down, with Route 49 fully closed at Salem. Pennsylvania alone accounted for 58 of the day's wind reports.

The numbers

Report count for the 12Z September 1 to 12Z September 2 period: 137 wind, 35 hail, 0 tornado. Wind reports by state: Pennsylvania 58, New Jersey 16, South Dakota 14, Nebraska 11, Delaware 11, Iowa 8, Minnesota 7, Wisconsin 6, New York 3, one each Texas, Idaho, California. Hail reports: Nebraska 21, South Dakota 9, Minnesota 3, one each Iowa and New Jersey.

Top measured gusts:

Largest hail:

Source: Storm Prediction Center storm reports for the 12Z September 1 to 12Z September 2 period. All reports are preliminary; SPC labels them so and this brief does too. Several gusts came from personal weather stations per the report remarks; times are converted from UTC.

Today, officially

Edouard inland: the rain is the story now

As of Advisory Number 8, issued 4 a.m. CDT Wednesday by the Weather Prediction Center, Tropical Depression Edouard sat about 30 miles south-southwest of Lufkin, Texas, drifting north-northwest at 5 mph with 35 mph winds. The advisory expects Edouard to dissipate Wednesday night. Its rainfall language is direct: "Total rainfall along Edouard's path is expected to range from 4 to 8 inches, with maximum totals up to 12 inches for parts of the Upper Texas Coast inland through east-central Texas. This rainfall is likely to produce flash flooding, especially in low-lying and urban areas. Significant flash flooding is possible." A brief tornado or two remained possible through early Wednesday morning across parts of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas.

The warnings on the ground Wednesday morning matched that language. Between 4:46 and 6:04 a.m. CDT, the Lake Charles and Houston offices issued Flash Flood Warnings covering Polk, San Jacinto, Liberty, Montgomery, Hardin, Tyler, Chambers, and Jefferson counties in Texas. Flood Watches from four forecast offices run through Wednesday afternoon and evening across east Texas, from the Houston metro north and east through the Piney Woods into the Fort Worth and Shreveport forecast areas.

The Houston Area Forecast Discussion, issued 1:59 a.m. CDT Wednesday, reads it this way: "The primary threat through tonight is heavy rainfall," with the highest risk "generally north of I-10 and along and east of I-45," and a forecast "swath of 6-8 inch rainfall totals in a SE to NW orientation from Northern Liberty to Houston County through Thursday." That discussion also notes WPC had upgraded portions of the Piney Woods to a Moderate Risk for excessive rainfall; the WPC Day 1 excessive rainfall outlook issued later, at 4:04 a.m. EDT and valid from 8 a.m. EDT Wednesday, carries a Slight Risk over east Texas. The two products read differently and are reported here as they read.

Official preparedness guidance lives at Ready.gov (https://www.ready.gov/), and the state emergency management agencies are the Texas Division of Emergency Management (https://tdem.texas.gov/) and Louisiana GOHSEP (https://gohsep.la.gov/).

Advisory vitals, per Advisory 8 (4 a.m. CDT September 2):

Severe weather: Slight Risks east and west

The Storm Prediction Center's Day 1 outlook, issued 12:57 a.m. CDT Wednesday and valid through 7 a.m. CDT Thursday, carries two Slight Risk areas. As the summary reads: "Severe thunderstorms are possible across portions of the eastern Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic today and tonight. Damaging wind gusts are the main threat, though some large hail and a few tornadoes may also occur. Scattered severe gusts and more sporadic occurrences of large hail appear possible from the northern Rockies into northern High Plains Wednesday afternoon into night." In the East, the outlook describes a complex day of repeated storm rounds, with a possible greater tornado risk in the evening across southern New York and central Pennsylvania, "contingent upon air mass recovery" behind the morning storms. In Montana, the outlook expects a fast-moving line by late afternoon with scattered severe gusts likely and peak intensity of 65 to 80 mph possible.

The tropics: two category 4s, both far from land

Per the advisories issued 9 UTC Wednesday, none of the three Pacific storms carries coastal watches or warnings:

Lowell's advisory headline reads, "LOWELL FORECAST TO BE A POWERFUL HURRICANE FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS," and its hazards section says swells "are likely to affect portions of the Hawaiian Islands beginning on Wednesday" with life-threatening surf and rip current conditions likely. Marie is forecast to become a hurricane later today, with its swell reaching southwest Mexico and Baja California in the coming days and likely spreading to southern California over the weekend. Two 145 mph storms on the same map and not one watch between them: the ocean is doing loud things in empty rooms, and the rock approves.

Otherwise

Extreme Heat Warnings were in effect Wednesday morning from the Quad Cities and Paducah forecast offices, and heat advisories covered a broad stretch of the mid Mississippi and Ohio valleys, in ordinary early-September numbers and below this brief's bar for news. No winter products of consequence.

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This is a morning summary, not emergency information. For live warnings see https://www.weather.gov/ and your local officials.

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