STORM2K

It was sunny all day and then all of the sudden this afternoon the wind picked up to almost extreme levels in my area of north Houston. Gusts up to what had to have been 40 to 50mph+ began to whip through my area (with no warning) and small branches began flying out of trees. I stepped outside to see what was going on and the whistling of the wind through the power lines was insane! After the wind burst passed (within the last few minutes), I learned that it had damaged a building right behind me. There are people standing outside of it saying "wow, I can't believe the wind blew that right off". The problem is I do not know what "that" is yet. I am still amazed by this sudden burst. I think it was likely a "near-severe" microburst. Seems like the storm has passed my area by and is strengthening as it heads toward downtown Houston. If there is anyone else with reports of this (or other) Houston storms this afternoon. Please post them here.

BTW: Lots of lightning and dark clouds are now appearing to my south (as the storm strengthens). I am very worried that someone is going to get hit with stronger winds than I saw, and would not be surprised if gusts over 65mph occurred with this cell. Take cover if you see this storm coming!

Just learned that there are warnings on storms NNE of Houston too. The storms up there have been knocking down trees and power lines. Hopefully these storms weaken before reaching our area.

Looks like I am too far west to get anything outta this one...

Here is the Houston radar. You can see that the original storm I mentioned is now dying out, but notice the storms to the NE and the new radar blip in Montgomery county. These cells should all be watched closely until sunset.

Here I had some strong gusty winds - 35 mph and one to 40 mph. It rained hard for a few minutes, but only amounted to .10".