Breaking down the challenges of communicating “low probability, high impact” events on CNN with Wolf Blitzer LIVE from Quito, Ecuador this evening:

Ingredient number one. You're talking to the wrong broadcast. This is texas, not Massachusetts.

Did you show them your Waffle House card?

Dang you’re good. Even reporting when on vacation. Out of the country.

I watched!

💙

Wait a minute - whom took this video? 🤔 lol

Evil 😈 pos

It's a simple answer, most people ARE NOT weather aware, I am willing to make a bet that if there were thunderstorms in the forecast no one paid attention to it. There should NOT be an option to turn off WEA alerts on phones etc that one step to try keep people safe.

LOVE your flexibility Matthew. You can easily adapt to working anywhere in the world.

Texas has had TWO 1,000-year rain events AND several 500-year rain events in the past 2 days. The 1,000-year rain events were those that hit west of Georgetown and Austin on Saturday morning AND that which struck west of Kerrville (and impacted the girls' camp). But we can't forget the MANY areas that saw 500-year rain events, including just north of San Angelo, where 6 to 12 inches of rain fell. A thousand-year rain event doesn't mean something that happens only once every thousand years. Instead, it's about PROBABILITY. On average, a rainstorm THIS intense – with this much rain in such a short window of time – should happen about once every thousand years. In other words, there's a 0.1% chance of it happening any given year. Our infrastructure is rarely designed to handle a thousand-year rain event. We usually plan for a hundred-year rain event... or one that has a 1% chance of happening any given year. Why did this happen? Last Monday, Tropical Storm Barry made landfall in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and brought considerable moisture ashore. That tropical moisture wafted north into Texas. Since then, subtle small-scale features have helped kick off scattered thunderstorms. Those storms then blossom into an incredibly souped-up air mass with extreme tropical moisture. That's made for 3 inch per hour rainfall rates and slow-moving downpours.

Time lapse of the Llano River in Texas rising dramatically yesterday.

The dumbest shit I’ve ever read in my life

The remains of Barry produced 20.33" of rain 4 miles northwest of Streeter TX. Barry is the 20th tropical cyclone (or remnant) since 1913 to cause 15"+ across Interior Texas. The loop below shows the other 19. Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Climatology: