By the staff at WFO Corpus Christi

Hurricane Dolly made landfall approximately 80 miles south of Corpus Christi, Texas on Wednesday July 23, 2008. Sustained tropical storm force winds spread as far north as the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, with tropical storm force wind gusts impacting nearly the entire Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Plains region. The peak wind gust measured in our county warning area was 63 MPH at the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) in Alice, Texas. The winds peaked at approximately 60 mph along the barrier island as well from Bob Hall Pier down to Baffin Bay. The gusty winds caused sporadic power outages across the southern Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Plains primarily between Corpus Christi and Laredo. Only a few thousand customers were impacted. View Post Storm Report

Although the center of Dolly passed well to our south, her slow forward motion before landfall caused water levels to rise along the Mid Texas Coast. A storm surge of 2-3 feet MLLW was observed along the mid Coast and total storm tides approached 4 feet MLLW on North Padre Island shortly after the time of landfall Wednesday Evening. View Photos of Beach Before & After Dolly It is also interesting to note that total storm tides peaked at 3-3.5 Ft above MLLW in the back bays including Nueces Bay and Lavaca Bay. At the time of this writing surge data was not available for Baffin Bay. Before & After Modis Images

Tornadoes are common in hurricanes and are generated in two areas: the eye wall region, and in the northeast quadrant of the hurricane, up to 250 miles northeast of the center. The National Weather Service in Corpus Christi issued 6 tornado warnings on the day of landfall. Warnings were issued for San Patricio, Nueces, Kleberg and Jim Wells counties. See Radar Velocity Data Isolated tornadoes occurred in the northeast quadrant including one waterspout and three tornadoes. Only minor damage was observed. The tornadoes were all rated EF-0. A Tornado Watch was posted from Tuesday Evening through Thursday Evening as strong wind shear, with helicity values in excess of 200 m2/s2, persisted. View photos of EF-0 Tornado damage

Dolly's slow movement produced torrential rainfall over the mid coast region and Rio Grande Plains. Rainfall totals of 1-2" were observed over northern portions of the region from Victoria to Laredo. Totals of 3-6" were observed generally south of a line from Rockport to Zapata. These heavy rains resulted in flooding of rural low lying roadways including FM 70 near Chapman Ranch in southern Nueces County, FM 628 and 1118 in Kleberg County. Minor street flooding was observed in Jim Wells and Duval Counties. The city of Laredo also experienced street flooding as the center of the circulation passed over the city. The heavy rains will have a negative impact on the farmers' ability to harvest the cotton crop. However the rains did end a severe drought which plagued the south Texas region for much of this year. View Rainfall Totals

Dolly marks the fourth hurricane to make landfall in Texas this decade. Hurricane Umberto made landfall near High Island, Texas in 2007. Hurricane Rita hit southeast Texas in 2005 and Hurricane Claudette made landfall near Port O'Connor in 2003. Damage estimates from Dolly could reach or exceed $750 million.

There were no deaths or injuries reported in the mid coast region from Dolly.

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