April Severe Weather Events

YEAR	DATE(S)	EVENT
2014	13th	An EF1 tornado was witnessed by several people to touch down in the Lovelady area and track for just under a mile before lifting near Lovelady High School, located about one mile north of the center of town. The tornado touched down near an area with mobile homes, then tracked toward the north northeast with an intermittent damage path before lifting near the school. The worst damage occurred to several mobile homes. Two large trees were uprooted and fell onto one mobile home which sustained severe damage to the central part of the structure. This mobile home was moved off its foundation but remained upright. The resident was at home but suffered only minor injuries as she was not in the part of the home that was most severely damaged. Another single wide trailer adjacent to the first damaged mobile home was rolled off its foundation, but this did not appear to be as well tied down. A third trailer about 50 yards toward the north northeast had its roof peeled off. This damage was rated EF1. Minor damaged occurred at Lovelady High School where some ceiling panels were lifted off near an the entrance area and numerous large limbs were stripped off trees. This damage was rated EF0.
2012	20th	A series of strong thunderstorms moved across the southern half of southeast Texas and produced widespread reports of hail and wind damage. The largest hail was golf ball sized in La Marque (Galveston County), and wind gusts in the same area damaged windshields and caused power outages. There was a 78 mph wind gust recorded at Moody Gardens on Galveston Island (Galveston County).
2012	4th	A stalled surface boundary served as a focus for the development of several well organized and severe thunderstorms that produced large hail across areas south and southwest of Houston. The largest hail was in Brazoria County - golf ball sized in Brazoria and baseball sized in Alvin.
2011	25th-26th	Two EF-1 Tornadoes caused damage to the west southwest of Crockett (Houston County) and across portions of the Davy Crockett National Forest (Trinity County). The Crockett tornado destroyed unoccupied mobile home and damaged several others along County Road 3015. Several large trees were uprooted or snapped on a hillside east of Route 21. The Davy Crockett National Forest tornado left extensive tree damage in the Moore Cemetery Road area. In addition to the tornadoes, a microburst with winds of 70 to 80 mph left damage in the Horseshoe Lake area (Walker County). Intermittent damage was over a large area with trees pointing toward the northeast. One area near the lake was especially hard it with large trees uprooted and snapped and some mobile homes shifted.
2010	24th	A series of five gravity waves moved along the Upper Texas Coast early in the morning. The second gravity wave caused damaging wind gusts up to 70 mph on Galveston Island (Galveston County) that damaged roofs on several homes.
2009	28th	A large, slow moving thunderstorm produced widespread heavy rainfall across western portions of Harris County during the early morning hours. Many roads including portions of US 59, Interstate 10 West, Beltway 8 West, and the 610 Loop were impassable for most of the morning rush hour, with numerous cars becoming stranded by high water. One fatality occurred when a vehicle was swept into the drainage system near the Katy Freeway (Interstate 10 W) and Beltway 8. In addition to the major disruption to the morning commute, over 2,100 Harros County homes received flood damage from this event. This ranks as the fourth largest number of homes flooded in a single event for Harris County.
2009	24th-25th	Slow moving thunderstorms across the southern portion of Harris County producedwidespread flooding and road closures. The area traversed by this system received heavy rainfall six days prior to the event, and the ground was still saturated. The heaviest rainfall fell along a line from Friendswood (Galveston County) to Baytown (Harris County), with totals of 7 to 8 inches during a six hour period. Many secondary roads along Interstate 45 became impassable for most of the evening. Forty to fifty homes recieved water damage from this event, although this is only an estimated count as all of the homes flooded on the 24th were also flooded during the earlier event on the 18th.
2009	18th	Flash floods over Galveston County and southern Harris County caused extensive damage and fatalities. Heavy rainfall persisted across the area as several thunderstorms produced rainfall totals of 8 to 10 inches. Numerous roads were closed in Harris County, including Jersey Village, Houston Heights, La Porte, Pasadena, Webster, and near the Houston Hobby airport. More than 350 homes were flooded due to the heavy rains and flooding along area bayous. In some areas, residential streets were reported to have more than one foot of standing water. The highest one hour rainfall total was 6.90 inches recorded at Bay Area Blvd and Clear Creek. This exceeded the highest one hour rainfall rate measured during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, which was 6.30 inches. In the northern part of the county, five children were killed after the car they were riding in inadvertently drove into a drainage ditch that was filled with nine feet of water from the heavy rainfall. Two adults and one child were able to escape the floodwaters, but the five younger children, all under 7 years old, were not able to escape. There was also widespread flooding of homes in the League City and Dickinson areas (Galveston County), with high water rescues being required in Dickinson. A rain gauge at FM 528 and Clear Creek in League City recorded a 1 hour rainfall total of 6.02 inches. League City reported 300 homes sustaining flood damage from this event. In addition to all the flooding, an EF-0 Tornado touched down in a marshy area a few miles south southeast of Hitchcock (Galveston County) as reported by several witnesses and captured on video. A damage path extended into the Harborwalk community with damage to several homes. Six garage doors were damaged or destroyed. A large wood and steel observing platform was destroyed. There was also some damage to shingles.
2008	27th	Two waterspouts in Galveston Bay south of Texas City and west northwest of the North Jetty.
2007	25th	As an upper level disturbance approached fron the west, a complex of strong to severe thunderstorms developed over central and south central Texas and moved across southeast Texas. There was an EF-0 Tornado northwest of Snook (Burleson County),significant straight line wind damage in College Station (Brazos County), lightning strikes that caused damage in Porter (Montgomery County) and Richmond (Fort Bend County) and Rosharon (Brazoria County), an EF-0 Tornado east of Oyster Creek (Brazoria County), and EF-0 Tornado near the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation (Polk County), and flash flooding in Freeport (Brazoria County).
2006	29th	There were six tornadoes during the early morning hours: an F0 tornado downed trees and power lines near Rye (Liberty County); an F0 tornado in Taylor Lake Estates (Polk County) impacted 52 homes (8 had major damage and 15 had minor damage) and also lifted off a patio roof, tore trees down and picked up and displaced a travel trailer; an F2 tornado in the Coldspring Terrace Subdivision along Lake Livingston (San Jacinto County) caused four injuries in two homes that received major damage; an F1 tornadocaused extensive damage near Liberty (Liberty County); and F0 tornado downed trees and ripped siding from homes northwest of Conroe (Montgomery County); and F0 tornado downed trees and flipped over a horse trailernear Cedar bayou (Harris County).
2006	21st	An early morning F1 Tornado snapped trees off and significantly dmaged Meyer Elementary School in Pleak (Fort Bend County).
2004	25th	Flash flooding in the Pecan Hill subdivision northwest of Fulshear (Fort Bend County) left 15 to 20 homes flooded, with uop to two feet of water in the worst flooded homes.
2004	10th	An early evening F1 Tornado damaged a shopping center in the Ballaire area (Harris County). The shopping center building received significant damage to its eastern rear and western front windows. Cars in the parking lot were damaged with one overturned on its side. A residential neighborhood on the south side of Bellaire Street, Sharpstown County Club Terrace, received tree and fencing damage. Cars were overturned and there was window damage at the intersection of Bellaire Street and Hwy 8 approximately 1/2 mile west of the shopping center.
2003	24th	Baseball sized hail in Columbus (Colorado County).
2003	22nd	Tennis ball sized hail covered the ground in Hempstead (Waller County).
2002	8th	Severe thunderstorms swept across the coastal areas in the morning and caused flash flooding and extensive wind and hail damage. On the eastern end of Follets Island just before San Luis Pass (Brazoria County), several homes received roof damage, two mobile homes were overturned, and there was one serious injury. On the west end of Galveston Island (Galveston County), quarter sized hail damaged 200 to 300 homes, and there was wind damage to homes in and around the Terramar and Bay Harbor subdivisions, with four houses missing up to half their roofs, and a couple dozen homes with missing shingles and blown out windows. There was street flooding in Pearland (Brazoria County), League City (Galveston County) and Pasadena (Harris County). Flood waters were two to three feet deep southeast of Hobby Airport around the San Jacinto College South campus. A 68 mph wind gust was measured at Morgans Point on the northwest side of Galveston Bay.
2002	7th	Baseball sized hail caused damage in Columbus (Colorado County).
2001	16th	A severe thunderstorm produced strong winds and large hail. Reports included quarter to almost golf ball sized hail near South Braeswood and Fondren Road (Harris County) that accumulated to several inches deep and was still on the ground 24 hours after the storm. There were also numerous reports of windows broken and trees and shrubs stripped of their leaves in the same area. In Fort Bend County, there was baseball sized hail from Missouri City to Fresno along with numerous trees and power lines down across the county.
2000	7th	A cold front moving across southeast Texas spawned a line of thunderstorms which moved across the eastern half of the area during the evening. Dime to golfball sized hail was reported in several locations with a couple of reports of wind damage.
2000	3rd	An F1 tornado caused major tree damage to several homes southeast of Anahuac (Chambers County).
2000	2nd	An upper level disturbance spawned a large cluster of thunderstorms over the southern half of southeast Texas in the early morning hours. Harris, Liberty, and Montgomery counties were hardest hit with widespread reports of large hail, downburst wind damage and flooding. In the Hockley area (Harris County), hail larger than golf ball size shattered windows and damaged cars, and there was extensive wind damage over a three square mile area with two homes destroyed and more than twenty homes damaged from downburst winds. There was widespread wind damage in Eagle Lake (Colorado County). Extensive flooding was observed in The Woodlands (Montgomery County).
1999	3rd-4th	Severe thunderstorms produced Flash flooding across Polk and San Jacinto counties. Heavy rains produced 3 feet of water on US 59 near Livingston (Polk County). In Livingston, people were evacuated where water was reported up to 5 feet high in some homes and mobile homes. 8.45 inches of rain fell at Lake Livingston Dam in just over three hours. The Shepherd area (San Jacinto County) was hard hit where 3.60 inches of rain was reported. Camilla (San Jacinto County) reported 8.50 inches of rain for the event.
1998	27th	Severe thunderstorms produced damaging winds that resulted in roof damage at the Beal department store in Brenham (Washington County).
1997	25th-27th	Coastal flooding resulted from prolonged strong easterly winds. Tides ran 2 to 3 feet above astronomically predicted levels from High Island to Jamaica Beach (Galveston County). Beach erosion, roof damage and foundation damage was observed - especially in Galveston County. Many residents along Galveston Bay lost fishing piers adjacent to their lots. Total damage was $655,000. Abundant street, bayou and creek flooding was also observed with this event due to 5 to 7 inches of rain falling in a six hour period across Fort Bend, Brazoria, Harris and Galveston Counties.
1995	20th	A supercell thunderstorm produced baseball to grapefruit size hail and an F0 tornadofrom the Sage Glenn subdivision (east of downtown Houston) to the La Porte and Channelview areas (Harris County). Two garages were destroyed and large tree limbs and fences were downed. Total damage was $121,000.
1994	15th	An F2 tornado struck the Indian Shores estate near Lake Houston (Harris County). The damage path was 300 to 400 yards wide and about 2.5 miles in length. 20 injuries and one fatality (mobile home destroyed) were attributed to the tornado.
1992	19th	Thunderstorm winds took off half of the gymnasium roof at Trinity High School (city of Trinity in Trinity County). Windows and doors were also blown out of other buildings on campus. 24 houses, 9 mobile homes, a service station and a church were damaged during the storm.
1990	24th	Severe flooding from very heavy rains occurred from the Caldwell area to near Somerville (Burleson County). One observer near Caldwell reported 13.45 iches of rain. The westeren end of Lake Somerville reported 9.64 inches. Caldwell had some of its worst flooding in recent memory. About a half dozen persons had to be evacuated from flooded and stalled cars.
1987	3rd-4th	Extreme cold resulted in record low temperatures and some crop damage. On the 3rd, College Station (Brazos County) got down to 30 degrees with many area nurseries reporting considerable damage to bedding plants. Houston Intercontinental Airport dipped to 31 degrees. On the 4th, College Station's 37 degrees and Houston's 34 degrees also broke records. These four record low temperatures still stand (thru 2012).

YEAR

DATE(S)

EVENT

2014

13th

An EF1 tornado was witnessed by several people to touch down in the Lovelady area and track for just under a mile before lifting near Lovelady High School, located about one mile north of the center of town. The tornado touched down near an area with mobile homes, then tracked toward the north northeast with an intermittent damage path before lifting near the school. The worst damage occurred to several mobile homes. Two large trees were uprooted and fell onto one mobile home which sustained severe damage to the central part of the structure. This mobile home was moved off its foundation but remained upright. The resident was at home but suffered only minor injuries as she was not in the part of the home that was most severely damaged. Another single wide trailer adjacent to the first damaged mobile home was rolled off its foundation, but this did not appear to be as well tied down. A third trailer about 50 yards toward the north northeast had its roof peeled off. This damage was rated EF1. Minor damaged occurred at Lovelady High School where some ceiling panels were lifted off near an the entrance area and numerous large limbs were stripped off trees. This damage was rated EF0.

2012

20th

A series of strong thunderstorms moved across the southern half of southeast Texas and produced widespread reports of hail and wind damage. The largest hail was golf ball sized in La Marque (Galveston County), and wind gusts in the same area damaged windshields and caused power outages. There was a 78 mph wind gust recorded at Moody Gardens on Galveston Island (Galveston County).

2012

4th

A stalled surface boundary served as a focus for the development of several well organized and severe thunderstorms that produced large hail across areas south and southwest of Houston. The largest hail was in Brazoria County - golf ball sized in Brazoria and baseball sized in Alvin.

2011

25th-26th

Two EF-1 Tornadoes caused damage to the west southwest of Crockett (Houston County) and across portions of the Davy Crockett National Forest (Trinity County). The Crockett tornado destroyed unoccupied mobile home and damaged several others along County Road 3015. Several large trees were uprooted or snapped on a hillside east of Route 21. The Davy Crockett National Forest tornado left extensive tree damage in the Moore Cemetery Road area. In addition to the tornadoes, a microburst with winds of 70 to 80 mph left damage in the Horseshoe Lake area (Walker County). Intermittent damage was over a large area with trees pointing toward the northeast. One area near the lake was especially hard it with large trees uprooted and snapped and some mobile homes shifted.

2010

24th

A series of five gravity waves moved along the Upper Texas Coast early in the morning. The second gravity wave caused damaging wind gusts up to 70 mph on Galveston Island (Galveston County) that damaged roofs on several homes.

2009

28th

A large, slow moving thunderstorm produced widespread heavy rainfall across western portions of Harris County during the early morning hours. Many roads including portions of US 59, Interstate 10 West, Beltway 8 West, and the 610 Loop were impassable for most of the morning rush hour, with numerous cars becoming stranded by high water. One fatality occurred when a vehicle was swept into the drainage system near the Katy Freeway (Interstate 10 W) and Beltway 8. In addition to the major disruption to the morning commute, over 2,100 Harros County homes received flood damage from this event. This ranks as the fourth largest number of homes flooded in a single event for Harris County.

2009

24th-25th

Slow moving thunderstorms across the southern portion of Harris County producedwidespread flooding and road closures. The area traversed by this system received heavy rainfall six days prior to the event, and the ground was still saturated. The heaviest rainfall fell along a line from Friendswood (Galveston County) to Baytown (Harris County), with totals of 7 to 8 inches during a six hour period. Many secondary roads along Interstate 45 became impassable for most of the evening. Forty to fifty homes recieved water damage from this event, although this is only an estimated count as all of the homes flooded on the 24th were also flooded during the earlier event on the 18th.

2009

18th

Flash floods over Galveston County and southern Harris County caused extensive damage and fatalities. Heavy rainfall persisted across the area as several thunderstorms produced rainfall totals of 8 to 10 inches. Numerous roads were closed in Harris County, including Jersey Village, Houston Heights, La Porte, Pasadena, Webster, and near the Houston Hobby airport. More than 350 homes were flooded due to the heavy rains and flooding along area bayous. In some areas, residential streets were reported to have more than one foot of standing water. The highest one hour rainfall total was 6.90 inches recorded at Bay Area Blvd and Clear Creek. This exceeded the highest one hour rainfall rate measured during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, which was 6.30 inches. In the northern part of the county, five children were killed after the car they were riding in inadvertently drove into a drainage ditch that was filled with nine feet of water from the heavy rainfall. Two adults and one child were able to escape the floodwaters, but the five younger children, all under 7 years old, were not able to escape. There was also widespread flooding of homes in the League City and Dickinson areas (Galveston County), with high water rescues being required in Dickinson. A rain gauge at FM 528 and Clear Creek in League City recorded a 1 hour rainfall total of 6.02 inches. League City reported 300 homes sustaining flood damage from this event. In addition to all the flooding, an EF-0 Tornado touched down in a marshy area a few miles south southeast of Hitchcock (Galveston County) as reported by several witnesses and captured on video. A damage path extended into the Harborwalk community with damage to several homes. Six garage doors were damaged or destroyed. A large wood and steel observing platform was destroyed. There was also some damage to shingles.

2008

27th

Two waterspouts in Galveston Bay south of Texas City and west northwest of the North Jetty.

2007

25th

As an upper level disturbance approached fron the west, a complex of strong to severe thunderstorms developed over central and south central Texas and moved across southeast Texas. There was an EF-0 Tornado northwest of Snook (Burleson County),significant straight line wind damage in College Station (Brazos County), lightning strikes that caused damage in Porter (Montgomery County) and Richmond (Fort Bend County) and Rosharon (Brazoria County), an EF-0 Tornado east of Oyster Creek (Brazoria County), and EF-0 Tornado near the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation (Polk County), and flash flooding in Freeport (Brazoria County).

2006

29th

There were six tornadoes during the early morning hours: an F0 tornado downed trees and power lines near Rye (Liberty County); an F0 tornado in Taylor Lake Estates (Polk County) impacted 52 homes (8 had major damage and 15 had minor damage) and also lifted off a patio roof, tore trees down and picked up and displaced a travel trailer; an F2 tornado in the Coldspring Terrace Subdivision along Lake Livingston (San Jacinto County) caused four injuries in two homes that received major damage; an F1 tornadocaused extensive damage near Liberty (Liberty County); and F0 tornado downed trees and ripped siding from homes northwest of Conroe (Montgomery County); and F0 tornado downed trees and flipped over a horse trailernear Cedar bayou (Harris County).

2006

21st

An early morning F1 Tornado snapped trees off and significantly dmaged Meyer Elementary School in Pleak (Fort Bend County).

2004

25th

Flash flooding in the Pecan Hill subdivision northwest of Fulshear (Fort Bend County) left 15 to 20 homes flooded, with uop to two feet of water in the worst flooded homes.

2004

10th

An early evening F1 Tornado damaged a shopping center in the Ballaire area (Harris County). The shopping center building received significant damage to its eastern rear and western front windows. Cars in the parking lot were damaged with one overturned on its side. A residential neighborhood on the south side of Bellaire Street, Sharpstown County Club Terrace, received tree and fencing damage. Cars were overturned and there was window damage at the intersection of Bellaire Street and Hwy 8 approximately 1/2 mile west of the shopping center.

2003

24th

Baseball sized hail in Columbus (Colorado County).

2003

22nd

Tennis ball sized hail covered the ground in Hempstead (Waller County).

2002

8th

Severe thunderstorms swept across the coastal areas in the morning and caused flash flooding and extensive wind and hail damage. On the eastern end of Follets Island just before San Luis Pass (Brazoria County), several homes received roof damage, two mobile homes were overturned, and there was one serious injury. On the west end of Galveston Island (Galveston County), quarter sized hail damaged 200 to 300 homes, and there was wind damage to homes in and around the Terramar and Bay Harbor subdivisions, with four houses missing up to half their roofs, and a couple dozen homes with missing shingles and blown out windows. There was street flooding in Pearland (Brazoria County), League City (Galveston County) and Pasadena (Harris County). Flood waters were two to three feet deep southeast of Hobby Airport around the San Jacinto College South campus. A 68 mph wind gust was measured at Morgans Point on the northwest side of Galveston Bay.

2002

7th

Baseball sized hail caused damage in Columbus (Colorado County).

2001

16th

A severe thunderstorm produced strong winds and large hail. Reports included quarter to almost golf ball sized hail near South Braeswood and Fondren Road (Harris County) that accumulated to several inches deep and was still on the ground 24 hours after the storm. There were also numerous reports of windows broken and trees and shrubs stripped of their leaves in the same area. In Fort Bend County, there was baseball sized hail from Missouri City to Fresno along with numerous trees and power lines down across the county.

2000

7th

A cold front moving across southeast Texas spawned a line of thunderstorms which moved across the eastern half of the area during the evening. Dime to golfball sized hail was reported in several locations with a couple of reports of wind damage.

2000

3rd

An F1 tornado caused major tree damage to several homes southeast of Anahuac (Chambers County).

2000

2nd

An upper level disturbance spawned a large cluster of thunderstorms over the southern half of southeast Texas in the early morning hours. Harris, Liberty, and Montgomery counties were hardest hit with widespread reports of large hail, downburst wind damage and flooding. In the Hockley area (Harris County), hail larger than golf ball size shattered windows and damaged cars, and there was extensive wind damage over a three square mile area with two homes destroyed and more than twenty homes damaged from downburst winds. There was widespread wind damage in Eagle Lake (Colorado County). Extensive flooding was observed in The Woodlands (Montgomery County).

1999

3rd-4th

Severe thunderstorms produced Flash flooding across Polk and San Jacinto counties. Heavy rains produced 3 feet of water on US 59 near Livingston (Polk County). In Livingston, people were evacuated where water was reported up to 5 feet high in some homes and mobile homes. 8.45 inches of rain fell at Lake Livingston Dam in just over three hours. The Shepherd area (San Jacinto County) was hard hit where 3.60 inches of rain was reported. Camilla (San Jacinto County) reported 8.50 inches of rain for the event.

1998

27th

Severe thunderstorms produced damaging winds that resulted in roof damage at the Beal department store in Brenham (Washington County).

1997

25th-27th

Coastal flooding resulted from prolonged strong easterly winds. Tides ran 2 to 3 feet above astronomically predicted levels from High Island to Jamaica Beach (Galveston County). Beach erosion, roof damage and foundation damage was observed - especially in Galveston County. Many residents along Galveston Bay lost fishing piers adjacent to their lots. Total damage was $655,000. Abundant street, bayou and creek flooding was also observed with this event due to 5 to 7 inches of rain falling in a six hour period across Fort Bend, Brazoria, Harris and Galveston Counties.

1995

20th

A supercell thunderstorm produced baseball to grapefruit size hail and an F0 tornadofrom the Sage Glenn subdivision (east of downtown Houston) to the La Porte and Channelview areas (Harris County). Two garages were destroyed and large tree limbs and fences were downed. Total damage was $121,000.

1994

15th

An F2 tornado struck the Indian Shores estate near Lake Houston (Harris County). The damage path was 300 to 400 yards wide and about 2.5 miles in length. 20 injuries and one fatality (mobile home destroyed) were attributed to the tornado.

1992

19th

Thunderstorm winds took off half of the gymnasium roof at Trinity High School (city of Trinity in Trinity County). Windows and doors were also blown out of other buildings on campus. 24 houses, 9 mobile homes, a service station and a church were damaged during the storm.

1990

24th

Severe flooding from very heavy rains occurred from the Caldwell area to near Somerville (Burleson County). One observer near Caldwell reported 13.45 iches of rain. The westeren end of Lake Somerville reported 9.64 inches. Caldwell had some of its worst flooding in recent memory. About a half dozen persons had to be evacuated from flooded and stalled cars.

1987

3rd-4th

Extreme cold resulted in record low temperatures and some crop damage. On the 3rd, College Station (Brazos County) got down to 30 degrees with many area nurseries reporting considerable damage to bedding plants. Houston Intercontinental Airport dipped to 31 degrees. On the 4th, College Station's 37 degrees and Houston's 34 degrees also broke records. These four record low temperatures still stand (thru 2012).