Houston Area Severe Weather Statistics

[Ptarmigan]

Ever wondered what time Houston area is most likely to severe weather. This is from hourly averages from 1980 to 2006 and within 124 mile range of the HGX Doppler Radar.

• CDT Hail Wind Tornado Total
  0000 63 117 11 191
  0100 46 117 19 182
  0200 56 109 22 187
  0300 47 99 17 163
  0400 43 116 22 181
  0500 41 85 21 147
  0600 33 114 16 163
  0700 33 106 17 156
  0800 42 67 33 142
  0900 41 54 27 122
  1000 36 66 35 137
  1100 33 58 43 134
  1200 40 80 30 150
  1300 47 92 41 180
  1400 75 109 48 232
  1500 161 159 82 402
  1600 196 220 76 492
  1700 253 280 87 620
  1800 238 245 65 548
  1900 219 226 58 503
  2000 187 174 49 410
  2100 149 133 29 311
  2200 117 121 19 257
  2300 82 114 24 220

Converted from UTC to CDT.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/rda/

Hour To See Most Severe Weather
5:00 PM (1700)

Hail
5:00 PM (1700)

Wind
5:00 PM (1700)

Tornado
5:00 PM (1700)


Hour To See Least Severe Weather
9:00 AM (900)

Hail
6:00 AM (600), 7:00 AM (700), and 11:00 AM (1100)

Wind
9:00 AM (900)

Tornado
Midnight (0000)

Interesting to note severe weather often happens during rush hour and lessens by night. I notice 2:00 AM has more severe weather than drops at 3:00 AM and rises at 4:00 AM. Severe weather at night is more likely to be variable for reasons unknown. Maybe a pro-met could explain why that is the case with severe weather going up and down hour by hour in the middle of the night. While in the daytime, severe weather is more likely to happen as the afternoon progresses, especially after 11:00 AM. Most likely due to heating of the Sun.

[C2G]

People living in Channelview may look at that 0000 time for tornadoes with skepticism.
F-4 roared through there in 1992 at around 3:30-4:10 ish in the afternoon on the 21st of November. It was a muggy and warm day.
Patrolling that ghost neighborhood was creepy at night.
Wish I had taken pictures of the damage, for it was incredible.

[Ptarmigan]

People living in Channelview may look at that 0000 time for tornadoes with skepticism.
F-4 roared through there in 1992 at around 3:30-4:10 ish in the afternoon on the 21st of November. It was a muggy and warm day.
Patrolling that ghost neighborhood was creepy at night.
Wish I had taken pictures of the damage, for it was incredible.

0000 time is midnight CDT and is the hour with the least tornadoes. Afternoon has the most tornadoes as in the case on November 21, 1992.

I have seen photos of the damage. It is horrendous. It is a miracle no one got killed.

[wxman57]

Interesting that the greatest threat for tornadoes occurs concurrent with the maximum amount of automobile traffic on the freeways, and the least likely time for tornadoes is when freeway traffic is lowest.

Can we conclude that tornadoes are caused by the vortex created as cars pass going opposite directions on the freeway? Just a thought...

[Ptarmigan]

Interesting that the greatest threat for tornadoes occurs concurrent with the maximum amount of automobile traffic on the freeways, and the least likely time for tornadoes is when freeway traffic is lowest.

Can we conclude that tornadoes are caused by the vortex created as cars pass going opposite directions on the freeway? Just a thought...

Solution to that is to stop driving at 5:00 PM. You know surprisingly there have been no mega tornado disasters in Houston despite it happening when freeway traffic is highest.