Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 249

May 16, 202416 parishes in Louisiana; 27 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 16, 2024, 2:39 PM CDT for 16 parishes in Louisiana; 27 counties in Texas. It was in force for 9 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 16, 2024, 2:39 PM CDT (19:39 UTC)
Expired: May 17, 2024, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 9 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 43 counties

Acadia Parish, LA, Allen Parish, LA, Avoyelles Parish, LA, Beauregard Parish, LA, Calcasieu Parish, LA, Cameron Parish, LA, Evangeline Parish, LA, Iberia Parish, LA, Jefferson Davis Parish, LA, Lafayette Parish, LA, Rapides Parish, LA, Saint Landry Parish, LA, Saint Martin Parish, LA, St. Mary Parish, LA, Vermilion Parish, LA, Vernon Parish, LA, Austin County, TX, Brazoria County, TX, Brazos County, TX, Burleson County, TX, Chambers County, TX, Colorado County, TX, Fort Bend County, TX, Galveston County, TX, Grimes County, TX, Hardin County, TX, Harris County, TX, Houston County, TX, Jasper County, TX, Jefferson County, TX, Liberty County, TX, Madison County, TX, Montgomery County, TX, Newton County, TX, Orange County, TX, Polk County, TX, San Jacinto County, TX, Trinity County, TX, Tyler County, TX, Walker County, TX, Waller County, TX, Washington County, TX, Wharton County, TX

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 98 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:43 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.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 40%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 30%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

63 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 16, 3:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Allen, Rapides, Vernon	65 min
May 16, 3:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Jasper, Newton, Tyler	53 min
May 16, 4:11 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Jasper, Newton, Tyler	6 hr
May 16, 4:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Grimes, Madison, Montgomery, San Jacinto, Trinity, Walker	42 min
May 16, 4:19 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HGX	Brazos, Grimes	4 hr
May 16, 4:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Polk	25 min
May 16, 4:42 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HGX	Grimes, Walker	4 hr
May 16, 4:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Austin, Colorado, Washington	34 min
May 16, 5:02 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HGX	Polk, San Jacinto, Walker	3 hr
May 16, 5:03 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Austin, Washington	27 min
May 16, 5:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Saint Landry	21 min
May 16, 5:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Beauregard, Vernon	26 min
May 16, 5:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Liberty, Polk, San Jacinto	26 min
May 16, 5:17 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	HGX	Austin, Colorado, Fort Bend, Harris, Waller, Washington	43 min
May 16, 5:22 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Allen, Beauregard, Vernon	5 hr
May 16, 5:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Liberty, Polk	47 min
May 16, 5:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Beauregard, Vernon	30 min
May 16, 5:36 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HGX	Polk	3 hr
May 16, 5:43 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Austin, Harris, Waller	17 min
May 16, 5:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Hardin, Tyler	27 min
May 16, 5:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	HGX	Austin, Fort Bend, Harris, Montgomery, Waller	26 min
May 16, 5:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Vernon	35 min
May 16, 5:57 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Harris, Waller	33 min
May 16, 6:09 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Hardin	4 hr
May 16, 6:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Harris	32 min
May 16, 6:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	HGX	Fort Bend, Harris, Montgomery	44 min
May 16, 6:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Allen, Beauregard, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis	42 min
May 16, 6:34 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Brazoria, Galveston, Harris	26 min
May 16, 6:37 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HGX	Liberty, Polk, San Jacinto	113 min
May 16, 6:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Hardin, Jasper, Newton, Tyler	31 min
May 16, 6:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	HGX	Chambers, Harris, Liberty	28 min
May 16, 6:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Calcasieu	27 min
May 16, 6:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Allen, Evangeline, Rapides	39 min
May 16, 6:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Acadia, Allen, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, Saint Landry	37 min
May 16, 6:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Hardin	34 min
May 16, 7:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Brazoria, Galveston, Harris	36 min
May 16, 7:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Beauregard, Calcasieu	62 min
May 16, 7:16 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Allen, Beauregard	3 hr
May 16, 7:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	HGX	Chambers, Galveston, Liberty	29 min
May 16, 7:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Calcasieu	27 min
May 16, 7:21 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HGX	Chambers, Liberty	13 min
May 16, 7:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Acadia, Allen, Avoyelles, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette and 3 more	64 min
May 16, 7:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis	51 min
May 16, 7:44 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Newton, Orange	3 hr
May 16, 7:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Chambers, Galveston, Liberty	15 min
May 16, 7:52 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Beauregard, Calcasieu	2 hr
May 16, 8:21 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LCH	Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis	7 min
May 16, 8:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Acadia, Allen, Calcasieu, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, Vermilion	49 min
May 16, 8:31 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Allen, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis	104 min
May 16, 8:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis	37 min
May 16, 8:56 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Acadia, Evangeline, Saint Landry	3 hr
May 16, 9:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Cameron, Vermilion	39 min
May 16, 9:10 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LCH	Cameron, Vermilion	24 min
May 16, 9:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Acadia, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette and 3 more	47 min
May 16, 9:27 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LCH	Lafayette, Saint Martin	18 min
May 16, 9:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	LCH	Iberia, Lafayette, Saint Martin, St. Mary, Vermilion	35 min
May 16, 9:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LCH	Iberia, Saint Martin	28 min
May 16, 9:49 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Acadia, Iberia, Lafayette, Saint Landry, Saint Martin, St. Mary and 1 more	2 hr
May 16, 10:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Saint Landry, Saint Martin	12 min
May 16, 10:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LCH	Iberia, Lafayette, Saint Martin, St. Mary	63 min
May 16, 10:48 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Iberia, Saint Martin, St. Mary	3 hr
May 16, 11:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Saint Martin, St. Mary	35 min
May 16, 11:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Iberia, St. Mary	34 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 12:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 162 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: 731 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -285 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1008 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 16, 1:12 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia and 5 more	3 hr
May 16, 4:56 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline and 4 more	94 min
May 16, 5:31 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson and 13 more	119 min
May 15, 8:09 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Armstrong, Briscoe, Carson, Childress, Collingsworth, Crosby and 17 more	96 min
May 16, 3:46 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Archer, Baylor, Dickens, Foard, King, Knox and 2 more	89 min
May 16, 6:28 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Bosque, Brown, Burnet, Callahan, Coleman and 27 more	2 hr
May 16, 10:26 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Brown, Burnet, Comanche and 22 more	3 hr
May 16, 10:51 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Brown, Burnet, Caldwell and 29 more	6 hr
May 16, 1:58 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Andrews, Borden, Cochran, Coke, Crane, Crockett and 23 more	2 hr
May 16, 3:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Andrews, Borden, Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman and 37 more	8 hr
May 16, 4:55 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Andrews, Borden, Coke, Crane, Dawson, Ector and 16 more	95 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Texas, 2024 Tornado Watches in Louisiana, 2024 Every tornado watch in 2024

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.