EF1 tornado, Moonshine Hill to Humble, Texas, January 9, 2022

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

January 9, 2022

Touchdown

1:17 AM CST (07:17 UTC)

Lifted

1:22 AM CST (07:22 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Harris County

Touchdown point

29.970, -95.270

Lift-off point

29.998, -95.254

Record number

2201090117-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HGX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Metal roof removed, walls collapsed. Surrounding structures not impacted as severely.
• No road network beyond tree line but appears to be start of damage path.
• Small trees uprooted, on home.
• Several large trees uprooted, trunks snapped.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Scattered thunderstorms associated with the approach of an offshore low pressure system produced several tornadoes on the evening of January 8 and the early morning of January 9. These tornadoes resulted in several instances of property and tree damage across the Greater Houston Area. Some non-tornadic storms also produced strong, damaging wind gusts. Later, heavy rainfall associated with continuing thunderstorm activity resulted in flash flooding across the Houston Metro.

This EF1 tornado tracked from a wooded area, through North Hollow Estates then across the City of Humble with damage to trees and a couple of structures. Vans were flipped in a church parking lot. One retail building was destroyed with the loss of its roof and three walls. The post office also sustained minor damage.

This EF1 tornado snapped the trunks or uprooted several large trees with a few of them on structures. The most significant damage was along Palmetto Lane and Hamblen Road near its intersection with Red Bud Lane.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

1 minute of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:16 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:44 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:40 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Houston Intercontinental (IAH), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Houston radar (KHGX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:17 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.