Severe weather rolls through Houston area
HOUSTON
Before the rain moved in, residents endured a temperature of 103 degrees in Houston; but as severe weather traveled from the east to the west, temperatures dropped by nearly 30 degrees. The National Weather Service forecasters issued severe thunderstorm warnings for many parts of the ABC13 viewing area, including Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Liberty and Brazoria counties.
Severe weather conditions were reported after pockets of rain that had formed over surrounding communities, like El Campo and Baytown, began to collapse.
"It's in the collapsing phase that we're getting reports of the gusty winds and a few reports of pea-sized hail," KTRK Chief Meteorologist Tim Heller said.
The reports of hail were made in Fulshear, Baytown, Manvel, El Campo, among others. Gusty winds also knocked down some trees around town.
But Tim Heller said the storm produced more lightning and thunder than it did rain; at one point, over 10,000 lightning strikes in the greater Houston area were reported between 3:30 and 4:30pm.
The lightning also could be to blame for a two-alarm apartment fire in the Texas Medical Center area. At the height of the storm, nearly 38,000 CenterPoint Energy customers also lost power.
On Sunday, northeast Harris County was hit hard by similar storms. The area near the city of Huffman was hit by wind so intense that it snapped heavy trees, lifted entire garage doors and destroyed car ports.
