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Harris County's traffic monitoring center is rolling out a new tool that will help drivers find high water locations during flood events.
Houston TranStar's real-time maps already indicate flooding on freeways. Now, those maps will show if there's a probability of high water on side streets.
To create the new map, Houston TranStar collaborated with the Harris County Flood Control District. Data from the county's rainfall sensors are overlaid on the map to indicate where there's a risk of flooding.
Flood Control Meteorologist Jeff Lindner explained that when a rain gauge hits eight-tenths of an inch in a fifteen-minute window, a three-mile buffer will light up on the map.
"About an inch of rain in 15 minutes is enough water to flood most roadway systems," explained Lindner. "On something like July 4th or Harvey or Tax Day or some of the other storms, you're probably going to see most of these sensors lit up across the entire county. And that's when you're going to know it's a widespread serious situation, most of the roads are impacted."
Officials say the new warning system can't tell you exactly if a side street if flooding but it can help you make decisions on what route to take.
Metro said it also plans to use the system to give real-time information to riders on routes that may be disrupted.
.@METROHouston CEO Tom Lambert says real-time TranStar data on local street flooding will improve transit operations @HPMNews887 @HoustonPubMedia pic.twitter.com/CIQC5zUL3r
— Gail Delaughter (@Gail_HPM) July 25, 2018
.@hcfcd Meteorologist Jeff Lindner says sensors on TranStar map will light up in a three-mile radius when an area gets heavy rain that could cause street flooding @HPMNews887 @HoustonPubMedia pic.twitter.com/BDjgL7Y5f6
— Gail Delaughter (@Gail_HPM) July 25, 2018
View the real-time maps, here.
