S. toward Texas.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS HGX wrote it up.
Exactly one week after the December 23rd outbreak, Southeast Texas received another round of severe weather as the next storm system moved out of the southwestern U.S. toward Texas. This event only lasted three hours (compared to eighteen hours on the 23rd). This event only had three tornadoes (compared to ten on the 23rd). However, damage from two of these three tornadoes was significant due to the fact that it occurred over heavily populated areas. This event had no injuries, and the total damage cost was just under $450,000.
The local office's own words before the first event, 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 the first event at Dec 30, 2:35 PM CST, 4 hours 40 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX 235 PM CST MON DEC 30 2002 THE INITIAL S/W PUSHED THROUGH THE CWA THIS MORNING WITH LITTLE ADO. ONLY A FEW SHRA LINGERING ACROSS THE REGION THIS AFTERNOON...BUT THE ACTIVITY LEVEL HERE NOT QUITE AS HIGH AS OUR NEIGHBORING NWSO OFFICE TO THE NORTH. TO OUR WEST...THUNDERSTORMS ARE STARTING TO LINE UP IN ANTICIPATION FOR THIS EVENING. HOWEVER...LATEST MODELS ARE ADDING AN INTERESTING TWIST: THE TIMING OF EVENTS HAVE SLOWED ONCE AGAIN. IN A REMARKABLY SIMILAR FASHION AMONG THE VARIOUS PROGS...THE COLD FRONT/ UPPER TROUGH-LOW ARE NOW BEING PUSHED ACROSS THE AREA BETWEEN 6-12Z. AS THIS TYPE OF MODEL AGREEMENT IS HARD TO IGNORE...WILL LIKELY BUMP UP THE TIMING OF THINGS A FEW HOURS AS A COMPROMISE. THIS SLOWING OF EVENTS MAKES THE SLIGHTLY HIGHER POPS/SLOWER CLOUD CLEARING FOR TOM- ORROW THAT MUCH MORE POSSIBLE. GIVEN THAT MOST OF THIS IS ALREADY IN THE ZONES...NOT MUCH CHANGE PLANNED FOR THAT PRODUCT. WE WILL LIKELY SEE A FLAREUP OF THE LINE OF STORMS WELL TO OUR WEST AS THE NEXT S/W ROUNDS THE BASE OF THE SEEMINGLY STILL DIGGING UPPER LOW AT/NEAR THE BIG BEND. ALSO OF CONCERN FOR TOMORROW...LINGERING MOISTURE/POSSIBI- LITY OF S/WS WRAPPING AROUND THE UPPER LOW COULD BRING SOME ELEVATED POST FRONTAL STORMS. SHOULD THIS PAN OUT...THE LOWER FREEZING LEVELS COULD HELP PRODUCE SOME HAIL. AT THIS TIME WILL LEAVE THE MENTION OF SEVERE FOR TONIGHT ONLY. THE NEXT RUNS MAY SHED MORE LIGHT ON THIS. DESPITE THE CHANGES IN THE SHORT TERM...THE EXTENDED PROGS ARE STILL ON TRACK. THIS NEXT FRONT IS STILL SLATED FOR A LATE WED/EARLY THURS PASSAGE AND A RELATIVELY DRY/QUIET WX PERIOD IS ON TAP THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK AND ON INTO THE WEEKEND GIVEN THE BUILDING UPPER RIDGE. 41/47 .HGX...SCA BAYS AND 0-60 NM WATERS. PRELIMS... CLL TE 048/059 038/065 040 840 IAH TE 052/060 039/065 042 840 GLS TE 053/060 046/063 049 840
GMZ300-330-335-350-355-370-375-TXZ163-164-176>179-195>200-210>214-226- 227-235>238-311300- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX 455 PM CST MON DEC 30 2002 ...SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS THIS EVENING... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND THE UPPER TEXAS COASTAL WATERS. .DAY ONE... .TONIGHT...A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM AND A COLD FRONT WILL APPROACH SOUTHEAST TEXAS TONIGHT. A SQUALL LINE...CURRENTLY ALONG THE FRONT OVER CENTRAL TEXAS...WILL PUSH FROM WEST TO EAST ACROSS THE AREA THIS EVENING. THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL BE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS. HOWEVER...A FEW STORMS COULD PRODUCE TORNADOES. THE SQUALL LINE WILL ENTER THE WESTERN COUNTIES OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS AROUND 6 PM...AND SWEEP OFF THE COAST BY MIDNIGHT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... .TUESDAY...THE UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS DURING THE DAY. THE COMBINATION OF LINGERING MOISTURE AND COLD TEMPERATURES ALOFT WILL FAVOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. DUE TO VERY COLD MID LEVEL TEMPERATURES ASSOCIATED WITH THE STORM SYSTEM...SOME OF THE STORMS COULD PRODUCE LARGE HAIL. .WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE REQUIRED THIS EVENING.
The Houston radar (KHGX), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:16 UTC.
7 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Wind damage to the roof of a home in the New Taiton area.
Some power lines down and a roof blown off a barn on Chudalla Road.
Roof damage, power lines down and more than fifty trees down in and around Indigo Lake Estates.
Trees down in and around Cut and Shoot, including one that fell through the middle of an evacuated mobile home.
3/4 inch hail.
Truck blown off road.
Tornado near the intersection of FM 2094 and Clear Lake Road.
Tornado touched down near the intersection of SH 348 and Loop 197 in Texas City. Several businesses were damaged at the initial touchdown. The tornado moved east northeast and eventually crossed the Texas City dike where numerous power poles were knocked down. The tornado continued past the dike and moved into Galveston Bay as a waterspout.
Tornado briefly touched down before moving to the northeast into Galveston Bay as a waterspout. Several boats at the Houston Yacht Club were overturned and a large section of a metal roof was destroyed.
140 feet of roof ripped off the Shops at the Balinese on the Galveston seawall.
64 mph wind gust at Pleasure Pier.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Texas, 2002Warnings in Texas, December 2002
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5326946, 5326947, 5326948, 5326949, 5326951, 5326952, 5326953, 5326954, 5326956, 5326955, 5326950.