As promised, a line of strong storms arrived this morning dropping heavy rain and bringing at least one confirmed tornado at Airline and W. Gulf Bank (no injuries, but home damage). Take a look at this still shot of a tornado near Anahuac this morning:
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Cold, northwest winds giving lift to our warm, humid air off the gulf created the storm line and moved it through at 40 mph:
As I write this blog at 9 a.m., we continue on TV with warnings and will be under a storm threat the next few hours. And if you look back at recent history, this is that time of year!
Halloween 2015
A huge tornado outbreak occurred on Halloween morning 2015 with 11 confirmed tornadoes, a foot of rain and two fatalities. We had several Click2Houston reports including this one from Friendswood. The Houston Chronicle ran this report of what was certainly one of the worst Halloween storms we’ve ever had. Here’s our map of where those 2015 tornadoes occurred:
Halloween 2018
More recently, just three years ago, we also had an outbreak of severe storms on Halloween with at least two tornadoes in Chambers and Colorado counties, strong storms across Houston and one fatality of a Waller County sheriff’s deputy. Here’s our report from click2houston which also includes video of our coverage that evening. It’s an amazing look back.
This isn’t just a spooky coincidence. October and November are that time of year when summer loses its grip and winter tries to edge in--that combo of cold meeting warm creates our secondary tornado season in the fall, our primary tornado season being in February when the cold begins to give way to warm! The lesson here is that this time of year is one to watch and don’t be surprised to see more strong fronts move through in November. Until then, a cool, crisp weekend is ahead as we move out of October!
Frank