Houston tornado and deadly winds surprised meteorologists

It only took a few minutes for a typical May evening in Houston to turn into disaster.

At 5 p.m., the city was quiet. But at 5:30 p.m., the sky darkened, the temperature dropped, and Houston suddenly felt the full force of one of the strongest and most surprising storms to hit the region in decades.

Severe thunderstorms and at least one tornado that swept through Greater Houston on Thursday, producing winds in the 100 mph range, surprised veteran forecasters who mostly expected the approaching weather to dissipate.

In interviews, they described an unusual mix of weather events as storms moved east of Houston, intensified in the Cypress area and eventually hit parts of downtown. A verified tornado in Cypress produced wind speeds reaching 110 mph.

High winds knocked down power lines across the region and left nearly a million homes and businesses without power, some of which could take weeks to regain power. They also hit skyscrapers in the city center, causing windows to break and glass to shatter in the street.

Meteorologists warned Friday that the event, which left at least four people dead from wind-related injuries, was not unprecedented. A dozen tornadoes touched down in Greater Houston in May 1983, killing eight people in the storms.

Still, the risks of similar disasters could increase in the future as temperatures continue to rise due to global climate change, they said.

“This was a rare but not unprecedented storm,” said Matt Lanza, a Houston-based meteorologist and editor of the Space City Weather website. “But it should be added that this tends to fit with the general theory and model of climate change.”

A powerful storm in Houston surprised the city

Lanza said there was “nothing unique” about the line of thunderstorms that first formed northwest of the city. Similar storm formations typically arrive every spring and fall, he said.

Lanza knew that several factors could intensify the storms, such as a cold front moving through the region – a “trigger” for thunderstorms during warm months like May – and a very unstable atmosphere over Houston.

But those elements were in place earlier this week, when forecasters warned Monday of the risk of tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail. These predictions ultimately did not come to pass.

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The “broken forecast” made Lanza skeptical that Thursday would be any different, he said. One of his co-authors in Space City Weather wrote early Thursday morning that there was “enough instability to support the threat of damaging winds and possibly a few tornadoes,” but that heavy rain appeared to be the most major meteorological threat.

“We knew there was a chance as the storms came south that the air would be warmer, humid, more unstable, and maybe stronger storms would develop as they moved through Houston “Lanza said.

To Lanza’s surprise, however, the storms did not weaken as they moved toward Houston. Instead, they intensified.

“Usually (storms) blow up and then weaken after a little while, but they keep going and going and getting stronger,” Lanza said. “This kind of wind is not normal here. None of this is typical.

Peak Severe Weather Season

National Weather Service meteorologist Janice Maldonado said the timing is good for severe thunderstorms in Houston. The last storm of comparable severity and impact to hit Houston also occurred with the devastation of May 1983, she said.

“Typically we have two peak seasons when it comes to severe weather,” Maldonado said. “(May) is one of the main peaks for us. It is common for us to have severe thunderstorms in the area.

Isaac Longley, a meteorologist at the national forecast service Accuweather, warned that it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change.

However, he said atmospheric changes caused by global warming can “act as fuel” for the type of storms that ravaged Houston on Thursday.

“That will be a concern going forward,” he said.

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