When I first moved to Missouri City, I didn’t understand the water ways… over time, and with the help of NOAA, I think I’ve worked it out, at least in my little corner of the world. The key is that everything is connected!
This cache is at a water level gauge on Oyster Creek (even though you can barely see the creek from the cache) that is 4 miles away from the Brazos river. The below pictures and data will describe why it’s so important to monitor this creek. When the Brazos floods, the water can back up both directly across the flood plain into oyster creek (miles and miles) or it can back up into Flat Bank Creek and then overspill into Oyster Creek (a few dozen feet). That explained a lot of what I was seeing in 2007.
This picture was taken near the railroad crossing of the Brazos and shows the pumping station that is very near to Flat Bank Creek
(The above picture was borrowed from LifeOnTheBrazosRiver.com
link)
The below picture shows the water backing up out of the Flat Bank Creek near Christian Brothers Automotive on Highway 6
Note… I believe the “last time it happened” historic data is incomplete (most notably for the 2007 flood) for the Richmond monitoring station, but I included the data I had as I think it still shows the pattern.
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Rosharon
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Brazos Level
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Richmond
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What happens
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Last time
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What happens
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Last time
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Water begins flowing across the flood plain into Oyster Creek.
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56.40’ in 12/1913
53.40’ in 05/1957
52.00’ in 05/1965
51.89’ in 01/1992
51.82’ in 10/1994
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50.8’
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Minor flow passes through the culvert near the Ramsey Unit Prison Farm into Oyster Creek as water is on the verge of passing over flood plain.
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56.40’ in 12/1913
53.40’ in 05/1957
52.00’ in 05/1965
51.89’ in 01/1992
51.82’ in 10/1994
50.74’ in 05/1968
50.67’ in 02/1992
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50.7’
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Major lowland flooding begins as homes in Richmond begin to flood and many homes in Simonton and Thompsons have water in them. Many homes in the Oyster Creek Farms subdivison have water in them due to significant flooding up Flat Bank Creek and there is major flow across the flood plain into Oyster Creek near Harris Reservoir and the Ramsey Unit Prison Farm.
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49.22’ in 11/1998
48.89’ in 07/2007
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49.8’
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Massive lowland flooding occurs with many homes in Simonton and Thompsons flooded. There is major flow across the flood plain into Oyster Creek near Harris Reservoir and the Ramsey Unit Prison Farm.
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50.30’ in 10/1994
49.80’ in 01/1992
48.93’ in 10/1998
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48’
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Flooding begins in vicinity of gage with homes threatened upstream in Simonton and downstream in Thompsons. Backwater flooding up Flat Bank Creek puts water in homes in Missouri City and water passes through the flood plain and enters Oyster Creek north of Harris Reservoir.
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47.6’
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Water is in the Simonton area upstream from the gage. Significant backwater flooding up Flat Bank Creek threatens homes in Missouri City. Water enter Oyster Creek through culverts and through the flood plain north of Harris Reservoir.
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46.1’
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Backwater up Flat Bank Creek downstream from gage threatens homes in Missouri City. Minor flow passes into Oyster Creek through culverts and water is very close to passing through flood plain just north of Harris Reservoir into Oyster Creek
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47.38’ in 03/1992
47.15’ in 01/1992
46.10’ in 02/1992
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Flooding begins in vicnity of gage as flow escapes the main channel.
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43.0’
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40.93’ in 03/1997
40.15’ in 06/1993
38.75’ in 05/1990
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For more info, go to the National Weather Service’s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service for Houston/Galveston.
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=hgx&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6
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