wxman57 wrote:jschlitz wrote:RE: the latest TWO - that's yet another 'notch' up on our in-house scale.
It seems like in the last two years I've lived in Houston, we've had an enormous amount of these near-shore invests pop-up along the lower/mid TX coast. One of these days, one of them will indeed spin-up a system before (not during) it makes landfall. Will former 90L be the one?? Time will tell....
Just think back to June of 2001 - Alison. It spun up near the same area about 12 hours before it moved inland. No wind to speak of, but it did rain a couple of inches.

For whatever reason, it seems like the systems that can ultimately close-off before landfall seem to dump a heck of a lot more rain after the fact. I know everyone says "it doesn't matter if it forms into a TD/TS or not, we'll still get a lot of rain." Well compare storms like Allison, Frances, & Erin, which closed-off at the last second to a storm like 98L back in 2005. Another one is Dean in 1995 - a weak system but closed that maintained its circulation for days out near Abilene. Just off the top of my head, it seems like the ones that manage to close-off are able to maintain the rain machine much longer & more intensely after they move inland than the ones that stay open.