HOUSTON – For those who can remember, November 21, 1992, started out as a typical muggy, fall day in Southeast Texas. Temperatures were in the 60s and relative humidity was high.
A cold front to the west of Houston was drawing up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and pushing ahead a blanket of ominous clouds.
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"Honestly, I have never seen a darker sky in Houston than that Saturday afternoon," recalled KPRC Local 2 Chief Meteorologist Frank Billingsley.
At days end, those who lived through that weekend would never forget what happened. Over a dozen tornadoes swirled through Southeast Texas. Six of those scarred parts of Harris County. One of those tornadoes was rated as an EF4.
Tornado outbreaks in November are not unheard of. According to NOAA's National Climatic Data, there were an average of 58 tornadoes in November between 1991 to 2010. In that same time frame, Texas had an average of 9 tornadoes in November per year. Added into those figures were the damaging twisters of 1992.
The morning of the 21st, a cold front had migrated towards Southeast Texas. By noon, a line of thunderstorms had developed along the front and several isolated but dangerous thunderstorms had formed ahead of it.
The first tornado touched down around 1:30 in the afternoon in Fort Bend County. The tornadic storms continued to march toward Harris County for the next several hours.
At one point, three tornadoes were tearing through Harris County at the same time!
The six tornadoes that were recorded in Harris County alone happened in:
- Pecan Grove,
- the Kelliwood area near Katy,
- Lake Houston,
- Pearland,
- Denver Harbor near downtown Houston,
- and finally the strongest tornado hit Channelview.
The Channelview tornado formed around 3:30 pm and lasted about 40 minutes. At first, the twister was described as a thin rope before widening out to over a mile.
The National Weather Service (NWS) discovered this tornado was on the ground for 20 miles eventually tracking into Liberty County.
It is reported 15 people were injured due to this single tornado. Those surveying the damage reported 14 homes had no inside walls left standing. More than 180 homes lost their roof. In all, 200 homes were destroyed and about 1,000 homes were damaged becuase of the Channelview twister.
The NWS concluded most of the tornadoes were on the ground during a two-hour period. They had reports of 34 injures and estimate over $12 million in damage were to blame on the outbreak. According to their synopsis, this was "perhaps the worst tornado outbreak on record in Southeast Texas."
Miraculously, no one lost their life because of the tornadoes.
"I am still amazed that we didn't lose one life on that day," said Billingsley. "I can tell you that such a weather occurrence is rare for our area because we haven't had a tornado outbreak like that since."