Confirmed F0 tornado in Friendswood, TX

[vbhoutex]

Severe Thunderstorms SE of Houston in the Webster and Friendswood area produced straight line winds measured to at least 70 mph and an F0 tornado in Friendswood which tore down fences, took down trees and powerlines and flipped an 18 wheeler on its' side. No injuries reported. Hail also reported up to Golf ball size.
2nd line of storms came through about 30 minutes ago on the West side and is now breaking up as it moves Eastward.

[southerngale]

I'm not surprised...the storms looked mean on radar. I'm glad nobody was hurt.

[stormie_skies]

Wow, thats mighty close to me, and it barely rained here ....guess we lucked out. Hope everyone is OK

[tano68]

I live in Friendswood, it was so scary. It really came out of no-where too. Me and my boys hid in the closet and prayed. Luckily no major damage to my house, lots of trees down, flashing on the house came off....but nobody was hurt. We had golf ball sized hail hitting our house. It was incredible. The neighbors shed's roof is up in the telephone wires, stop signs either pulled right out of the ground or bent completely over! We had no power till around 9pm last night. There was an 18 wheeler flipped over in the Kroger parking lot, I don't know if anyone was in it. I hope not. Lots of business with windows blown out too. But no reports of injuries, Thank God. The one thing that surprised me about this storm is that it last alot longer than you would think (being that it was a tornado). We must have stayed in the closet for 20-25 mins, and it was really bad the whole time. We never had any warning either and I had the news on the tv, I just knew when it got really bad, it must be a tornado somewhere around. My husband and my older son were at 24 hr, and saw the tornado! What a night, and what a day its going to be with all the clean up! I guess all the blessing my house with Holy Water worked, because we were truly blessed
Tano

[vbhoutex]

So glad to hear you came through relatively unscathed!!! We have a few other members down in Friendswood. I hope we hear from them soon.

[frankthetank]

Denver had a few tornadoes pop yesterday.... check it out here... they have video footage

http://9news.com

[southerngale]

Dang Tano...what an experience! Thank God ya'll are ok!!

[KatDaddy]

Lots of tree and fence damage here in Rustic Oaks and Country Side near 518 and Bay Area. Trees split in pieces and sheds blown apart. We were out of power for about until 9:30 PM. Lots of debris scattered around. I noticed the stripped trees between Bay Area and 528 along 518.

When I left work at South Shore and saw the storm in the distance I knew it was more than an average storm. It looked to be rotating. Lots of rapid cloud movement along the edge of the storm.

The lightening was extreme! Massive bolts.

You know it was bad when see branches blown up into the transmission lines.

We had 60-80MPH winds propelling marble size hail.

[Scorpion]

Theres such thing as an F-0?? Lol. Probably a dust devil is stronger.

[tano68]

We were very blessed here. All we had to do today was to clean up debris everywhere. It could have been so much worse.

Scorpion, I agree, but if that was an F0, I don't want anything else, thankyou very much !

[tano68]

I don't know if anyone notices in my post above, I just wanted to thankyou for the kind words. I guess I put it in the wrong spot and didn't want anyone to miss it

Thanks again.

Tano

[KatDaddy]

NOUS44 KHGX 051840
PNSHOU

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
130 PM CDT TUE OCT 4 2004

...SEVERE WEATHER IN FRIENDSWOOD AND LEAGUE CITY MONDAY OCT 3 2004...

SHORTLY AFTER 5 PM A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM MOVED INTO THE FRIENDSWOOD
AREA FROM THE NORTHEAST. THIS STORM PRODUCED WIDESPREAD WIND DAMAGE
TO TREES...SIGNS AND SOME BUILDINGS. THE MAJORITY OF THIS DAMAGE WAS
DUE TO A MICROBURST. A MICROBURST IS A STRONG DOWNDRAFT OF DAMAGING
WINDS USUALLY LESS THAN 5 MILES IN DIAMETER. WINDS IN A MICROBURST
CAN OFTEN REACH VALUES OF 70 TO 100 MPH AND WILL PRODUCE DAMAGE
SIMILAR TO A SMALL TORNADO BUT THE DAMAGE WILL COVER A LARGER AREA.
IN ADDITION TO THE DAMAGING WINDS...HAIL UP TO GOLF BALL SIZE AND
TORRENTIAL RAINS WERE ALSO EXPERIENCED WITH THIS MICROBURST.

WE ALSO HAD CITIZENS REPORT THEY HAD SEEN A SMALL TORNADO CROSS FM
518 JUST NORTHWEST OF FM 2351. ONE OF THE WITNESSES HAD JUST DRIVEN
INTO HER DRIVEWAY WHEN THE TORNADO STRUCK AND IT PICKED UP THE
CAR AND TURNED IT IN PLACE BEFORE SHE COULD ABANDON THE CAR AND GET
INSIDE THE HOUSE. THIS SMALL TORNADO ALSO LIFTED SHINGLES OFF OF A
HOUSE AND KNOCKED DOWN NUMEROUS TREES. WE BELIEVE THIS WAS WHAT IS
CALLED A GUSTANADO. A GUSTANADO IS A SMALL TORNADO THAT SOMETIMES
FORMS ALONG THE LEADING EDGE OF A THUNDERSTORM AND CAN ALSO PRODUCE
DAMAGE AND ARE NORMALLY SHORT LIVED. THIS SMALL TORNADO WAS RATED AS
AN F0 TORNADO.

A SECOND MICROBURST OCCURRED IN WEST LEAGUE CITY AROUND 515PM ALONG
FM 518 IN THE COUNTRY SIDE SOUTH SUBDIVISION. FENCES AND TREES DOWN.
SOME BOARDS OF A FENCE ACTUALLY PENETRATED THE SIDING OF A HOUSE.

IN SUMMARY THE MAJORITY OF THE DAMAGE DONE BY THE SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS LATE MONDAY WAS DUE TO A DOWNBURST OR SOMETIMES
REFERRED TO AS STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL THE NATIONAL
WEATHER SERVICE AT 281-337-5074 AND ASK FOR GENE HAFELE.

[Aslkahuna]

Yes, there are F0 tornadoes (winds of 40-72mph) and yes, strong dust devils will be of the same intensity-in fact, dust devils can reach F1 intensity.

Steve