Houston/Galveston, TX

Weather Forecast Office

Severe Storms On April 13, 2019

Overview

Severe thunderstorms impacted Southeast Texas on April 13, 2019. In addition to numerous straight-line wind damage and hail reports, three tornadoes were confirmed in Houston County. These storms were the initial portion of a much broader severe weather event that stretched across the southeastern states through April 13 and continued into the Mid-Atlantic on April 14. A damage survey team went to Houston county on April 14, and surveyed damage tracks from the three tornadoes. Two of those surveys were coordinated with the results of surveys by WFO Shreveport, as the storms that produced the tornadoes crossed the boundary between the two offices' areas of responsibility and produced tornadoes in each area. More details on the portions of the tracks not in the Houston/Galveston county warning area are available from the website of WFO Shreveport.

Damaged Cars from the Lovelady Area

Tornado
Wind & Hail
Photos & Video
Radar
Environment

Tornadoes:

Tornado - Weches
Houston County, TX

Date	April 13, 2019
Time (Local)	1256 PM CDT
EF Rating	EF-3
Est. Peak Winds	140 MPH
Path Length	15 mi
Max Width	800 yd
Injuries/Deaths	0/1
Summary: Tornado touched down in Houston County northeast of Crockett and tracked for 15 miles to the county line. A new tornado began just inside Cherokee County. Most of the damage was snapped pines, indicative of EF-1 damage but much more severe damage was found in an area just northeast of Weches. There, a double-wide trailer and its frame were thrown over 150 yards and destroyed. A female occupant within the trailer was killed.

Track Map

Downloadable KMZ File

Tornado - Lovelady
Houston County, TX

Date	April 13, 2019
Time (Local)	1223 PM CDT
EF Rating	EF-2
Est. Peak Winds	130 MPH
Path Length	3.9 mi
Max Width	100 yd
Injuries/Deaths	0/0
Summary: Tornado produced intermittent damage along its track, taking a metal roof off of a home where it touched down. The most severe damage was on the northeast end of the track where trees were stripped of limbs, vehicles were tossed and stacked on one another, and a double-wide trailer home was destroyed.

Track Map

Downloadable KMZ File

Tornado - Tadmor
Houston County, TX

Date	April 13, 2019
Time (Local)	1133 AM CDT
EF Rating	EF-1
Est. Peak Winds	90 MPH
Path Length	0.3 mi
Max Width	75 yd
Injuries/Deaths	4/0
Summary: Tornado damage was found along County Road 1175, with trees snapped and uprooted along a path parallel to the road. Near the end of the path, the tornado destroyed a double-wide trailer home and pushed it into a wooded area. Four occupants in the home were injured, but as of April 14th, were released from the hospital.

Track Map

Downloadable KMZ File

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 Weak 65-85 mph	EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph	EF2 Significant 111-135 mph	EF3 Severe 136-165 mph	EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph	EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph

Wind & Hail:

In addition to the tornadoes, additional straight-line wind damage reports were received in Trinity and Houston counties. As the focus for storms drifted towards the coast, the character of the storms changed such that the highest threat became hail, rather than winds and tornadoes. Multiple severe hail reports were received in the southwest portion of the Houston metro area.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
750 PM CDT SAT APR 13 2019

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0145 PM     TSTM WND DMG     5 E RATCLIFF            31.39N 95.05W
04/13/2019                   HOUSTON            TX   LAW ENFORCEMENT  

            SWATH OF TREES DOWN BLOCKING STATE HIGHWAY 7 
            NEARLY A DAMAGE EXTENDS TO THE NECHES RIVER. 
            TRAFFIC HROUGH AND SOME VEHICLES ARE STUCK 
            BETWEEN TREES BLOCK THE ROAD. TIME 
            ESTIMATED. 

0135 PM     TSTM WND DMG     TRINITY                 30.94N 95.37W
04/13/2019                   TRINITY            TX   LAW ENFORCEMENT  

            NUMEROUS REPORTS OF TREES DOWN, POWERLINES 
            DOWN AND A OME IN TRINITY. TIME ESTIMATED. 

1226 PM     TSTM WND DMG     5 WNW LOVELADY          31.15N 95.52W
04/13/2019                   HOUSTON            TX   LAW ENFORCEMENT  

            TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ON FM 3151 
            WEST-NORTHWEST OF IME ESTIMATED. 

1140 AM     TSTM WND DMG     RATCLIFF                31.39N 95.14W
04/13/2019                   HOUSTON            TX   LAW ENFORCEMENT  

            POWERLINES DOWN NEAR RATCLIFF. 

1125 AM     TSTM WND DMG     1 W KENNARD             31.36N 95.20W
04/13/2019                   HOUSTON            TX   LAW ENFORCEMENT  

            MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ON THE WEST SIDE OF 
            KENNARD. 

1135 AM     TORNADO          RATCLIFF                31.39N 95.14W
04/13/2019                   HOUSTON            TX   LAW ENFORCEMENT  

            *** 3 INJ *** 3 INJURED WITH A TORNADO BADLY 
            DAMAGING RATCLIFF. TIME ESTIMATED. 

0120 PM     LIGHTNING        CROCKETT                31.32N 95.46W
04/13/2019                   HOUSTON            TX   LAW ENFORCEMENT  

            HOME DAMAGED BY LIGHTNING IN CROCKETT. TIME 
            ESTIMATED. 

0303 PM     HAIL             2 NW BUNKER HILL VILLAG 29.78N 95.56W
04/13/2019  E1.00 INCH       HARRIS             TX   PUBLIC           

             

0256 PM     HAIL             3 NW SHARPSTOWN         29.73N 95.54W
04/13/2019  M1.00 INCH       HARRIS             TX   PUBLIC           

            QUARTER HAIL IN WESTCHASE AREA NEAR BELTWAY 
            8 AND LLWAY. 

0254 PM     HAIL             MISSION BEND            29.69N 95.66W
04/13/2019  E1.25 INCH       FORT BEND          TX   TRAINED SPOTTER  

            SKYWARN SPOTTER HALF DOLLAR SIZED HAIL. 

0252 PM     HAIL             MISSION BEND            29.69N 95.66W
04/13/2019  M1.00 INCH       FORT BEND          TX   TRAINED SPOTTER  

            SKYWARN SPOTTER REPORT.

Photos & Video

Lovelady Area

(All photos were captured during an official NWS Houston/Galveston storm survey.)

Kennard Area

Grapeland Area

Radar

Four Looks at One Storm

Houston County is a very difficult area to analyze storms. Multiple radars can sample this area, but all are very far away. Because of the curvature of the Earth, that means all of the radars are seeing very high parts of the storm - between 15,000 and 18,000 feet above the ground! Despite that, the EF-3 Weches tornado was quite strong, and indicators of a tornado were present in the storm's structure even to that great height. What we lacked in ability to see low in the storm, we at least had a way to see the storm with four radars.

In the upper left panel, you can see the traditional radar view and that these storms were quite intense. In the upper right, we can see the motion of the winds, and rotation (near the red dot) in the storm even in this 15-18 thousand foot range. The bottom two panels are the dual pol products Correlation Coefficient (CC, left) and Differential Reflectivity (Zdr, right). One of the things these can be used for is to determine the presence of a torandic debris signature (or TDS). This is usually a patch of low CC and Zdr near zero in the same spot as the rotation. In strong tornadoes (EF-2+), this signature can be seen to or above 10,000 feet above the ground. We don't get to see that traditional signature here, but the pattern of CC and Zdr hints that we could possibly be looking at the very top of the debris column. Since we're looking at the storm more than 15,000 feet high, this gave us an indication at the time that this was a strong tornado. This was confirmed by the following damage reports and the results of our damage survey.


Ft. Hood, TX Radar - Click to Enlarge	Houston, TX Radar - Click to Enlarge	Shreveport, LA Radar - Click to Enlarge	Ft. Polk Radar - Click to Enlarge

Environment

The synoptic environment was very favorable for the development of severe thunderstorms across the western and northern Gulf Coast. All modes of severe weather were possible, summarized by the SPC outlook for the day. Though the best parameters were focused north and east of our area, the environment was still favorable enough over parts of Southeast Texas to justify an "Enhanced" risk area, a level 3 threat on a scale of 1-5.


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Texas A&M Meteorology launched soundings on this day as part of the VORTEX-SE tornado field research project. This provided a local look at the environment as it evolved from the morning (left sounding) to very near the time of the tornadoes at mid-day (right). The main change was that an inversion, or cap, that existed in the morning eroded and allowed developing storms to tap into copious instability. Deep layer shear (the change in winds with height) also increased, which would help storm updrafts stay organized long enough to become severe.


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Shortly before the tornadoes in Southeast Texas occurred, a tornado watch was coordinated with SPC, as indicated with this mesoscale discussion and the watch issued as storms began to develop.


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