Tropical Storm Imelda (2019)

Basin

North Atlantic

Dates

September 17, 2019 to September 19, 2019

Peak strength

Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)

Lowest pressure

1003 mb (29.62 inHg)

Landfall

Yes

Accumulated cyclone energy

0.2

Tropical-storm-force wind reached

40 nmi (74 km, 46 mi) from the center at its widest

Eyewall radius at its peak

25 nmi (46 km, 29 mi)

Overall size

150 nmi (278 km, 173 mi) to the outermost closed isobar

Peak gust in the best track

45 kt (52 mph)

Fastest the center moved

12 kt (14 mph)

Identifier

AL112019

Radar at KHGX as it neared land, Sep 17, 17:45 UTC

The sources count different things and are not added together.

Landfall points the US agencies flagged in the best track. The nearest town is named from the site’s gazetteer, not from the report.

NOAA’s Storm Events database, the record National Weather Service offices compile months after a storm, as compiled March 2026.

Deaths

5 (5 direct, 0 indirect)

Injuries

3

Property damage

$926 million

Crop damage

none recorded

Events recorded

41 in 5 reports from 3 states and marine areas

State by state

What was recorded

37 flash flood, 2 tornado, 1 waterspout, 1 thunderstorm wind.

2 tornadoes and 1 waterspout recorded in the United States, strongest first.

The Weather Prediction Center attributes 3,605 rain gauge totals over the contiguous United States to this storm. The wettest reached 44.29 inches (1125 mm).

WPC’s storm rainfall file, 1900 to 2020, compiled by David Roth.

The strongest winds National Weather Service offices recorded with this storm. An estimated figure is a forecaster’s judgment from the damage, not an instrument reading.

From the Storm Events narratives, unedited.

St. John Emergency Manager relayed multiple reports of a waterspout over Lake Pontchartrain. Several videos of the waterspout were posted across social media. No damage reported as the waterspout remained over water.

Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Maurepas, Gulf of Mexico · Waterspout · Sep 17, 22:35 UTC

EF-1 damage was surveyed from a late afternoon tornado that touched down near the intersection of Haney Road and Barbers Hill Road. The tornado tracked to the east-southeast across a field and then crossed Garth Road, North Main Street and Hadden Road. The most significant damage on North Main Street was the loss of a metal roof on a home along with large tree limbs and the trunk of a tree snapped. A barn at a feed store was severely damaged. Trees were uprooted in a tree line behind the feed store between North Main and Hadden. Some large limbs were also downed on Hadden near the end of the damage path.

Harris, Texas · Tornado · Sep 18, 21:56 UTC

Numerous flooded roads, road closures in the Kingwood and Huffman areas. Water entering homes. There were numerous reports of flooding in and around the Kingwood area. There were reports of flood water entering homes in Huffman and in Plum Grove. Water rescues were conducted around Will Clayton Parkway and West Lake Houston Parkway and also for stranded flooded home residents on Meyer Road. Several major roadways were impassage due to flooding. Some of these impassable flooded roadways included, but were not limited to, sections of Kingwood Drive and the intersection of FM 1960 and FM 2100.

Harris, Texas · Flash Flood · Sep 19, 12:55 UTC

Damage from a weak tornado included 1 flipped RV and another damaged along Everett Vincent Drive and Johnny Benoit Road. A few trees were also downed.

Cameron, Louisiana · Tornado · Sep 19, 16:02 UTC

Tide along the coast ran 1 to 2 feet above normal during Imelda filling the marshes of Southwest Cameron Parish. Heavy rain from Imelda produced around 1 foot accumulation around Johnson Bayou flooding most secondary roads and making some impassable since rain water could not flow off as fast with the higher tides.

Cameron, Louisiana · Flash Flood · Sep 19, 18:00 UTC

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A best track is the record a warning agency settles on after the storm, not what it said at the time: position, maximum sustained wind and central pressure every six hours, revised against every observation that came in later. Category is the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from Category 1 at 64 kt to Category 5 at 137 kt and reads wind only, so it says nothing about surge or rain. Accumulated cyclone energy adds up the square of the wind through the storm's life, so it counts strength and duration together.

Storm history from NOAA NCEI’s International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), which merges the official best track of every warning agency. Live storms, cones, watches and warnings from the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Archived radar from NOAA’s Level II archive.

• Tropical cyclone report, National Hurricane Center
• Every advisory and discussion NHC issued while it was live
• Best track as KMZ, National Hurricane Center
• Best track as a shapefile, National Hurricane Center
• Wikipedia article: Tropical Storm Imelda