Four people died overnight as severe storms rode the ridge of a heat dome that has been plaguing Central America and Mexico for weeks. It is the same heat that the lower Florida Keys and Miami endured a few days ago and was expected to hit Texas as it expanded north and west. High winds were generated and caused damage to Downtown Houston. The winds blew out the windows of skyscrapers, a few buildings collapsed, and transmission towers toppled, leaving over one million people without power.
The wind storm was comparable to a Category One or a low-end Category Two hurricane. At this point, whether straight-line winds (derecho formed) or tornados caused the damage is unknown.
The NWS warned of heavy flooding as the area has been deluged with rainfall for weeks. The wind storm likely caused the most damage to the Houston metro area.
The Washington Post Capital Weather Gang writes:
Jason Miles, a reporter for Houston television affiliate KHOU, wrote that the skyscraper damage reminded him of Hurricane Alicia, which slammed the city in 1983. Whitmire said the wind speeds were the “equivalent of Hurricane Ike,” which barreled through the region in 2008.
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The same storm system also prompted numerous severe thunderstorm, tornado and flash flood warnings north and east of Houston. Storms extended into southern Louisiana, where there were reports of damage including downed trees and power lines from Lafayette to New Orleans, where winds gusted over 80 mph. A confirmed tornado struck near Convent, La., about 45 miles west of New Orleans, which toppled trees and power lines.
More than 130,000 customers were without power in Louisiana on Friday morning, according to online tracker PowerOutage.
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As the violent storm approached Houston, the National Weather Service issued a dire severe-thunderstorm warning that predicted “destructive winds” of 80 mph. Doppler radar estimated that winds just above the ground may have surpassed 100 mph.
“Winds tend to be stronger with height — at the highest floors of the skyscrapers in #Houston’s business districts, the wind gusts exceeded 100 mph and may have been as high as 120 mph,” Craig Ceecee, a meteorologist who specializes in severe storms, wrote on X.