Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Warnings in 1996

Tornado Warning 9, NWS Houston/Galveston, TX

August 11, 1996Harris County, Texas

NWS Houston/Galveston, TX issued this tornado warning at Aug 11, 1996, 5:57 PM CDT for Harris County, Texas. It was in force for 63 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Aug 11, 1996, 5:57 PM CDT (22:57 UTC)
Expired: Aug 11, 1996, 7:00 PM CDT
In force: 63 min
Issued by: NWS Houston/Galveston, TX
Area: Whole counties

County Harris County, TX

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 52 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:57 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 12:00Z, 11.0 hours before the alert went out and 213 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 2063 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -9 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 665 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 101 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 118 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KHOU 112300
TORHOU
TXC201-120000-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON TX
557 PM CDT SUN AUG 11 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HOUSTON HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  700 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS
 
   ...NORTHERN HARRIS COUNTY
 
AT 557 PM...RADAR INDICATED A TORNADIC STORM 2 MILES SOUTHEAST OF
TOMBALL. MOVEMENT WAS EAST AT 15 MPH.  SPRING IS IN THE PATH OF
THIS STORM.
 
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM SITUATION.  ACT QUICKLY.  IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO... GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON
THE LOWEST FLOOR POSSIBLE.  AVOID WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND
MOBILE HOMES FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING.  AS A LAST RESORT GET
INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this tornado warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Houston/Galveston, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at Aug 11, 2:32 PM CDT, 3 hours 25 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 11, 2:32 PM CDT, 3 hours 25 minutes before

SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
232 PM CDT SUN AUG 11 1996

TSTMS AT 2 PM BEGINNING TO LIGHT UP AN OLD BOUNDARY ALONG LINE FRM
AUS TO CLL.  TO E OF CLL... WIDELY SCT CONVECTION IS GETTING
UNDERWAY... BUT NOT AS DEEP OR RAPID DUE TO MIXING FROM EARLIER RAINS
AND DUE TO LOWER TEMPS FROM OVC SKIES.  OVER THE SW PTN OF FA...
LATE AFTN SEABREEZE CONFLUENCE IS JUST BEGINNING TO SET UP FRM VCNTY
GLS WWD TO MATAGORDA BAY... AND MAY HAVE STORMS FIRING ALONG THIS
BOUNDARY IN THE NEXT HOUR OR SO.  ALL IN ALL... SAME KIND OF THING WE
HAVE SEEN OVR THE RGN FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS... AND EXPECTED TO
LIKEWISE CONT INTO EVENING... WITH E-W LINE OF CONVECTION FRM AUS TO
NR POE KICKING OFF SWD MOVING OUTFLOWS WHICH WILL KEEP CONVECTION
ROLLING UNTIL AFTR DARK.  ERN PTN OF POLK COUNTY GOT 3-4 INCHES PCPN
LAST NIGHT AND MAY BE IN THE WAY OF SOME OF THIS CONVECTION AND
POSSIBLY BE AT RISK OF SOME MONOR FLOODING.  BUT SINCE THAT IS ONLY
RGN OF FA LIKELY TO BE AT RISK UNLESS SIGNIFICANT TRAINING ALONG A
BOUNDARY SHOULD SET UP... DO NOT BELIEVE WHOLESALE FFA IS WARRANTED
FOR N PTN OF FA.  IN BROADER PICTURE... UPPER FLOW BCMG MORE NLY OVR
NCNTRL TX AND S/W THAT SPC IS THINKING ABOUT LEADING W/ BOX ATTM (IN
OK) IS PROGGED TO PUSH SWD ALL THE WAY INTO SE TX BY ABOUT 20 HOURS.
HENCE WILL JUST HAVE ANOTHER DETAIL TO EXACERBATE THE SITUATION.  I
HAVE GENERALLY GONE WITH DOUBLE BARRELED PCPN THREAT IN AVN FORECASTS
DUE TO THIS SCENARIO... WITH AFTN/EVE CONVECTION FOLLOWED IN ANOTHER
BOUT IN WEE HOURS.  ATMOS GRADUALLY DRYING OUT AFT MON AFTN...
ALTHOUGH PESKY H5 TROF AND STALLED OUT SFC FNT TAKING UP RESIDENCE
INTO MID WEEK OVR RGN...  AND DESTABILIZING EFFECTS WILL WARRANT SOME
MENTION OF PCPN POTENTIAL.

PRELIMINARIES...

CLL 75/96 74/97 5432
IAH 74/90 74/93 5532
GLS 76/90 78/91 5532

38

In the hours before

Local storm report, Aug 11, 2:48 PM CDT, 3 hours 9 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...FOR SAT AUG 10 1996 STORMS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON
244 PM CDT SUN AUG 11 1996

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0644 PM    TOMBALL                   TX   58 MPH TSTM GUST
08/10/96   HARRIS                         SPOTTER REPORTED 50 KNOT
                                          WINDS.

0825 PM    HOUSTON                   TX   WIND DAMAGE
08/10/96   HARRIS                         HOUSTON EOC REPORTED TREES
                                          BLOWN DOWN.  KEY MAP
                                          LOCATION 374M.

0830 PM    HOUSTON                   TX   WIND DAMAGE
08/10/96   HARRIS                         HOUSTON EOC REPORTED TREES
                                          BLOWN DOWN.  KEY MAP
                                          LOCATION 453W.

0833 PM    HOUSTON                   TX   WIND DAMAGE
08/10/96   HARRIS                         HOUSTON EOC REPORTED TREES
                                          BLOWN DOWN NEAR THE
                                          MEDICAL CENTER AND ALSO AT
                                          4000 S. SHEPPARD AND HWY
                                          59.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Houston/Galveston, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 10, 8:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Harris	67 min
Aug 11, 4:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Brazos	63 min
Aug 11, 5:06 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Montgomery	69 min
Aug 11, 5:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Harris, Liberty	61 min
Aug 11, 6:35 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Chambers	55 min
Aug 11, 6:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Harris	63 min
Aug 11, 6:46 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Fort Bend	59 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Texas, 1996 Every tornado warning in 1996 Tornadoes in 1996

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.