In brief: Today’s post discusses elevated rain chances today, and the rest of the week, which should help keep daytime highs a bit cooler. However, with higher temperatures on the horizon next week, power losses really need to be restored by then. I also list my top five most impactful weather disasters in Houston.
Ranking Beryl in the pantheon of Houston weather disasters
I’ve lived in Houston since 1997, covered weather on a semi-regular basis since 2001, started blogging about hurricanes in 2005, and been a certified meteorologist since 2014. I have tromped around flooded Houston streets during Allison, heard the winds howling downtown during Ike, and froze my tuchus off three and a half years ago during those “rolling” blackouts that never actually rolled.
The following list is totally subjective, but it’s coming from the perspective of someone who has probably written more words about the weather in Houston than anyone past or present—probably about 3 million words, or nearly six times the length of War and Peace. Anyway, after all that writing and thinking about Houston weather, here is my list of top five most impactful weather events since I got here:
- 1. Hurricane Harvey (2017). The competition for the top spot is not even close. The worst flood storm in US history and very likely the defining event of my career. I’ll never forget any of it.
- 2. Hurricane Ike (2008). At the time, it was the second costliest US hurricane ever, ranking behind only Hurricane Katrina. It still ranks among the top 10, and was a devastating wind and surge event.
- 3. Valentine’s Freeze (2021). We froze. We lost power. Our pipes burst. The roads iced over. The entire state of Texas, of Texas, was under a freeze warning at one point. This event impacted almost everyone in our community.
- 4. Tropical Storm Allison (2001). Before Harvey this was Houston’s flood of record. The Texas Medical Center flooded. Downtown Houston flooded. Everything flooded. Crazy rains that night. If you know, you know.
- 5. Hurricane Beryl (2024). At this point I’m prepared to put Beryl on this list due to its widespread disruptions to power and internet connectivity (still down for many, I realize). Beyond that, the storm downed hundreds of thousands of trees, and caused serious coastal flooding due to surge.
There are other serious contenders for this list. Dwight Silverman told me he believes the Drought of 2011 should be on the list, and it did cause serious structural problems in Houston, and utterly disrupted our flora and fauna. I also considered Hurricane Rita, which led to the death of 107 evacuees. Rita ultimately missed Houston, but no one who evacuated will forget that nightmare, and it led to statewide reforms in how Texas and local communities manage evacuations. Tropical Storm Imelda’s rains were catastrophic for parts of the Houston region, but a non-event for others. Other events, like Tropical Storm Frances (1998), and the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods, were also more localized phenomena.
Those are my thoughts. What about yours?
Thursday
With a boundary just offshore, and plenty of moisture in the atmosphere, we’ll start to see rain chances increase today. Coastal areas will see coverage of about 50 percent, with a few stronger thunderstorms. Areas further inland will have lower, but not non-existent chances. Increased cloud cover and rain-cooled air should help keep temperatures a bit lower today, in the low 90s for most, possibly even a touch lower near the coast. Humidity levels remain high, of course. Winds will be light, out of the southeast.
Friday and Saturday
The pattern will be more or less the same the next couple of days, with partly to mostly cloudy skies, and healthy rain chances. Showers and thunderstorms will be most likely during the afternoon hours, with daytime heating and the seabreeze providing a trigger. Highs will range from 90 to the lower 90s for most locations.
Sunday
Chances start to back off a bit, but there will still be a modest chance of rain. Look for highs in the low 90s with partly sunny skies.
Next week
High pressure starts to edge upward heading into next week, and this will increase our daily temperatures into the mid-90s, and then possibly the upper-90s. Rain chances will decrease for the start of the week, but should be on the rise again toward the end of next week. In any case, this is going to be hot summer weather in Houston, and people are going to need their power back on.
In my personal experience Beryl was more impressive than Ike. This was the first hurricane experience of being on the dirty upper right quadrant of the storm in Conroe. Overall I know Ike was way more powerful and destructive with surge and shear size of the system. Still without power in Conroe…
I know. On Sunday I didn’t hear weather people talking about us being on the dirty side of the hurricane. I don’t remember if Eric called it that. But it sure was the dirty side.
I was literally affected by EVERYthing in this blog (listed or not) except Allison. I was a New Orleanian displaced by Katrina for Rita, but my family re-evacuated after JUST getting back to New Orleans. I had to explain to my bonus daughter, who has anxiety and did not grow up here, that I have weather PTSD. To put this in perspective, the ONLY event she (and my family) was (were) here for was the Valentine’s Day freeze. Beryl was (is?) their FIRST bona fide hurricane experience. Again, thank you as always for your hard work.
That feeling when Derecho ’24 gets bumped off the Top 5…
Thinking the same thing. The derecho should at minimum get mention among the localized flooding events for those of us in the corridor that got slammed, I would think.
The derecho was a more localized event, with less widespread impact compared to those mentioned by Eric.
And this is coming from someone who was heavily impacted by derecho (Timbergrove got it harder than almost anyone else). I had work colleagues who said “what storm?” after the derecho.
Agreed re not “wide spread”, but the fact it was a storm with that level infrastructure damage NOT coming from Gulf, is still quite something.
When you started to blog, soon after the Katy Joke started I think. Been following you since.
Good job to you!
Thanks to SCW & The Eyewall
No power in SugarLand
I have lived in the same spot inside loop 610 since 1983. Was here for all of the above plus Alicia, which was very bad. This storm produced the same, if not worse, damage around me than Alicia and Ike. And somehow I missed the fact that Beryl was going to cause such widespread damage in Houston, but understood our Galveston home would get slammed. It was worse here. I think the drought should be on the list as well as the heat wave of 1980.
The heat wave in 1980 was brutal. I remember heading to Galveston to “cool off” only to have my feet get burned by the sand.
Summer of 1980 was my first summer job as a teenager. Working for a land surveying company which meant 40 -50 hours per week in the sun. Over 30 straight days with temps 100+. That made me decide to go to college
For our family in Montrose, Beryl has been more disruptive, as well. We only lost power for 48 hours with Ike. Going on 72 hours now.
First, continued thanks to you and the SCW team for the work of this site. You guys are really a gem of our community – and I say this as a 50+ year Houstonian.
I agree 100% with your Top 5 (or I’ll call it the “Evil 5” since they aren’t welcome to return here). I was lucky I was out of town when Harvey landed but I worried about family and friends while trying to get back.
That episode made me think hard about always evacuating for a storm. One can always replace things – and why bother staying to suffer in the aftermath of no power?
Floods, freeze, and hurricanes do wreak more havoc on us than any drought since they are sudden so I agree with your logic there for the list.
Hurricane Alicia in 1983 would be on my list. Without power for 3 weeks in Channelview.
We really, REALLY don’t need rain right now. It’s going to delay getting power restored. Does the nightmare of living here ever end? 3 more months until I finally leave but Beryl has me trying to accelerate that timeline to 2 months if possible. No power, no water, and this unbearable heat. I can’t keep putting my family through these constant extended power outages.
More rain now will mean more raining inside people’s homes. Good to cool down, but will exacerbate another problem people haven’t been able to mentally jump to yet bc of the stress and heat.
MOLD will set in soon.
I repacked everything that mattered to us personally in water proof snap top storage boxes during Christmas. The December ENSO report was the final straw for me. I feel/know that Houston be hit at least twice.
First comes the storm, then comes the heat and then the MOLD. Mold devastates. Esp in Houston bc this place breeds it. A house will turn into a rainforest here within a week. Walls, belongings, etc.
I’m sorry you had to experience Houston like this. It wasn’t always so.
In terms of the wind damage I’ve seen, I’d put Beryl neck and neck with Ike. Storm surge from Ike was far more deadly.
The list of weather events Houston & region has suffered stretches the imagination. Just this year: May ‘near miss’ flooding event on San Jac watershed, June derecho, July Beryl. We won’t be retiring here, enough is enough
What a crazy experience all of those storms have been for the city of Houston. Lord bless our community!
Man i must be old I remember hurricane Carla
I remember it, too – September of 1961. My family lived in the southeast part of the city, about 2 miles from the airport (Hobby, as it is now called: there was no Intercontinental back then). We lost power for a day or so. I would say we lost A/C too, but we didn’t have airconditioning until several years later.
I’ve been here for the five you mentioned. I’d actually put Allison number two. I get the Ike damage, but Allison was such a “surprise” for everyone. I’d been in Houston maybe three years when it hit. No one expected anything like that! (And Imelda kind of wound up in the same category…surprise! Here’s a flood!)
I want to agree with Dwight about the drought of ‘11, but can’t see it on this list. Losing a bunch of trees was bad, but no one had to be pulled out of their stalled vehicle and the lights stayed on.
I’m with you, Mark. TS Allison was rough. I lived out East of Katy at the time and we saw very little impact, but I was working for the Alley Theatre at the time and we were out of commission for about a year from the flooding and damage to our building.
Harvey, Beryl and Allison have all been surprises and I think that makes their impacts worse in my opinion. Ike was definitely bad, but we expected it. I remember with Harvey being relieved because it “missed us.” Yeah. That didn’t work out too well. Allison was my first experience – “Just a tropical storm,” not a Hurricane, so it wouldn’t be too bad. I still have nightmares about the poor lady who drowned in a parking garage elevator downtown trying to get to her car.
Wow, I remember that too about the lady trying to get to her car. It was so awful.
What might be on record about Hurricane Carla…before your time? We lived in Dallas then but my family in Colorado County told scary stories.
TS Allison – the place I worked at the time lost a third of our stock, had a foot of water inside, and we were closed for a month in order to clean up. I broke two toes and lost ten pounds in stress and sweat weight. Never again.
Ike – no power or water for three days personally and it was the first hurricane I was here for by myself. My grandfather had no power for 19 days, and then had a heart attack.
2021 freeze – my elderly mom and her husband stayed with me off and on for 10 days in my 800 square foot apartment as we all lost power and then their pipes burst. My father had also moved back to Texas that weekend from Florida (to Austin).
I am a native, and I’m getting pretty over it. Considering I’ve lived places where the high reaches 120 and the humidity can surpass 90%, I’m not sure which one is worse now.
You guys saved my sanity during Harvey. Thank you for your work.
Our community was affected by all of these. More Harvey, Ike and now Beryl. We lost power for more than 14 days during Ike. We never lost power during Harvey even though half our neighborhood was a lake. Beryl is looking more like Ike and we may be waiting another 14 days for power.
Harvey here was a majority wind storm, and while I have several friends who lost their homes and horrible things happen, that one for me personally was less awful than Allison. I will remember my experience with that till I die.
ARGH RAIN storm, not wind.
I’m 74 and I personally put Hurricane Alicia in 1983 in this top five. Much damage everywhere.
Hurricane Alicia in 1983 for hurricanes. Many were weeks without power. People could not work (no remote work). Downtown devastated. Lots of tornados. Refineries were severely damaged.
I agree with your ranking. The thing this go around that really has my feathers in a bunch is that our power near lake conroe went out at 7:45 am monday and all of the surrounding area has power but us! Due to the needs of many outside the immediate area they haven’t sent someone to our street to throw a breaker on a transformer to restore grid power.
Luckily we were prepared and people thinking I’m crazy for the amount of fuel I keep on hand for the generator are no longer thinking I’m crazy. After snowpocalypse I added a larger generator that can handle all my food refrigeration and some AC. So that has been a godsend with this current outage. That gives you more time to assess the situation before venturing out.
Thanks to Tachus for getting us fiber internet. When they installed I asked what happens during a whidespread outage and the tech said they have NG Generators hooked to their nodes and as long as you have power at the house you should have power. Within a few hours the cell towers failed but with Tachus up I could make cell calls via wifi in my house so we could keep in touch with friends and family.
Thanks to the company that maintains our Community well they put a generator in the well house after Ike so that kept the water going. If that failed I even have a back up to that.
So this storm I was more annoyed than concerned with uncertianty and worry by taking lessons learned about the inevitability of these events in the area.
As with any long outage this is an opportunity for me to improve my storm preparedness so I know where I need to improve. I remember driving to Dallas to get a Generator with Ike bearing down on us and I’ve been on a road to improvement ever since on my preparedness.
Yeah, growing up here, preparedness has been an annual cycle right up there with birthdays and Christmas.
I get people being mad at Centerpoint, but I’ve also always assumed power could be out for weeks after a storm like this, and every preparedness guide agrees.
That said, times have changed since the days of “hurricane lamps.” Our sprawl and our climate have us dependent on electricity like never before, and the costs of being prepared have never been higher, particularly for millions who can’t just go get a hotel in Austin or whatever.
The top five storms — and I concur with this list — have all been in the past 20-odd years. It’s not going to get any better. We will forever have to do more to prepare. Is it sustainable? Unfortunately that will be for our kids to figure out. No doubt the hard way.
I was born in Houston way, way back ‘when’. I have lived ALL of my life withing 100 miles of the Gulf of Mexico. I have lived thru all of the above (I never leave because of a storm!). Hurricane Carla (1961) also brings back ‘bad memories’. I had a less than one year old kiddo, pre Pampers days, pre formula in a can days, I didn’t have power for ten days. I currently live in Austin County, after the straight line storm (which left us without power for 24 hours) went thru here, early the next day grandson made a fast trip to Brenham to purchase a propane powered generator which ‘powered’ four refrigerators, one freezer, and (not including A/C) a one house.
TS Claudette-flooding was horrendous. Alvin-Pearland area and Southern Houston had 50″ rain. The north and west sides were not impacted as much…but Claudette drenched lots of Texas. I think it was in 1979?
Yes, July 1979. Lived in Friendswood (Sun Meadow). Floodwaters above electric outlets downstairs & had minnows from Chigger Creek swimming in oak parquet-floored downstairs.
Absolutely the wildest storm ever. More rain than any other. I was just a kid and my parents were young and totally overwhelmed so they just let me sleep. I woke up and the water was up to the bed. I was carried out sitting on the shoulders of a fireman and the water outside the house was up to his arms. Just unbelievable.
I have been in the southeast Houston area since 1990 and agree with your top 5 list thus far; but if this year weather forecasting bears out there will be more hurricanes & tropical storms to add to this list before this season is done.
As a sick weather nerd I absolutely agree with your list.
Thank you for all your great info! NY Times says today that Beryl has caused more power outages than Ike. Is that true?
It is true and lots of people are wondering how this can be the case since Ike was a worse storm. I believe it’s simply due to the fact that the population of Houston is far larger than it was back when Ike hit. More residents = higher outage numbers. Doesn’t excuse the fact that Centerpoint was not prepared to handle the situation, though.
Moved to Houston in ‘07 and bought our house in ‘08. Watching Ike barrel through from the 3rd floor windows with transformers blowing up green everywhere was something. Out of power for 2 weeks I believe from that. After that, that house seemed never to lose power – kept it during Harvey, freeze, derecho, and even now.
Our current house, not so much.
I think your order above is pretty spot on from my perspective.
For Ike it took 15 days to get power restored to our area, but that was in September and we had a cool front come by soon after the hurricane. I don’t anticipate any cool fronts coming in in the next couple of weeks, so I hope its restored soon.
I was here for all on the list & agree. We unfortunately owned a beach house in Galveston during Ike. Our primary home had no power for a week with that one. Doesn’t the entire world have crazy weather events though? I guess I didn’t realize we were all that different but maybe we are.
I know I am to the east in Beaumont-Orange, but Rita might be #2 for us……Harvey #1……
Moved here in 1997 and agree with you, Clear Lake area didn’t have issues from May derecho so I can’t speak to that.
Good Morning!!! And the Derecho?? Where does it stand?
Alicia in 1982! 2 weeks after we got married! We lived off Eldridge and Briar Forest. Lost our roof and ceiling in upstairs bedroom and had no power for 3 days! I was from Dallas! It was my first hurricane!!
I meant 1983!
Dee, we were newlyweds too, and I remember huddling in the bedroom closet in our little apartment on Bissonnet, watching the windows bow in and out. After the eye passed over, we watched the windows on the other side of the apartment bow in and out. Our first hurricane! Wish it had been our only one!
Your top 5 definitely hit the mark for any long-time resident. I remember following your blog in 2008 when Ike was just another storm rolling in across the Atlantic.
I would have to say Alicia should be on the list. Went to bed with word it was going to Corpus. Woke in the night to the fact it was absolutely not going to Corpus. No power for 18 days & since it was “going to Corpus”, not a lot of prep work. Thank goodness Beryle wasn’t a Carla, paths were too close.
I lived in Beaumont during Ike and rode it out. I said at the time that Ike was the most devastating storm after Katrina. The 20 foot high levy in Bridge city was topped. This caused that entire city to be affected. Bolivar Peninsula was wiped out completely. Most beach houses were completely destroyed. Over 200 lives lost (not positive about the number). Interestingly enough in Beaumont power outages were not prolonged because Hurricane Rita a few years earlier had already downed all susceptible trees and roofs. Ike was the most underrated storm possibly because the areas of worst destruction were East of the Trinity River.
Spring 2024 is definitely a contender, too (& may turn out the whole year is a living nightmare 😭), with April & May delivering Harvey rainfall totals & flooding to our northern counties, plus widespread hail & wind damage on numerous days… & Then there was the derecho! 😵 Millions lost power for days (more than once, I was one of them) this Spring, besides countless trees & properties damaged. But the worst, of course, was the deaths 🥺 Many died this Spring, too… From April through this week, it’s been too much destruction & loss already. 😮💨
I’ve been back in Houston since 1995 and agree with your ranking. Thanks for the great job y’all do!
Harvey definitely impacted Houston more than any storm to date. Alicia was my first rodeo so to speak, and Ike left me without power for two weeks. Allison was the queen to King Harvey. Beryl seemed to be the storm that fooled us and took us by surprise. Also exposed lack of infrastructure and planning that we need to address as a city.
I agree with others about Aliscia being on the list. We didn’t have power for three weeks. I have much sympathy for all of us without power but everyone complaining about CenterPoint don’t have perspective on how bad it was in the past.
Two things can be true. It can have been worse in the past and Centerpoint can be at fault for mismanaging things in the present.
Hurricane Beryl was one hell of a cat 1 hurricane. Not only was it a cat 5 previously but it was the earliest cat 5 on record. Thank god it was battling that dry air in the Gulf or else we would all be dealing with a much worse situation right now. I feel like people tend to disregard cat 1 hurricanes because everyone only ever hears about the worst of the worst cat 4 and cat 5s. But a cat 1 is still really bad storm at the center especially on the immediate coast. There is going to be consequences for alot of people. If it is called a hurricane it is bad news regardless of the ranking. I feel that Beryl was a great example of this.
agreed joseph. a lot of people wrote it off even tho houston was never out of the forecasted tracks. a hurricane is a hurricane. and we got off relatively easy. people better learn or will suffer and die in the future.
Yes, Cat 2 Hurricane Alicia 1983 – very similar to Ike. Lost power for a week. Downtown had thousands of broken windows due to wind driven gravel. We lived in the Montrose and I’ll never forget seeing the transformers blowing one by one in the middle of the night.
Ike was more impactful than Harvey for me personally because we didn’t get power back for 10 days. However I did have access to a generator and it wasn’t quite as hot if I recall correctly.
I was staying with a friend during Harvey who lived right off of Memorial Drive. His place was high enough that we weren’t impacted but I couldn’t get back to my house for 2 days. Walking out to see the big apartment complex across Memorial completely surrounded by water was just crazy. I felt terrible for those people.
Beryl was a little scarier than Ike because I now live in a house that backs up to a lot of very big trees. I saw a massive tree fall while standing on my back patio at which time I realized my backyard was not safe until it was over. I thankfully got power back last night but this has been the most miserable three days I have experienced in a while
No honorable mention for the derecho?
Sitting in a 91 degree house on Tiki Island I would agree with your list in general. However in real estate and storms it is all about location, location, location. Ike for Tiki and Galveston was the worst whereas Harvey was a nothing burger BUT 20 miles away in Dickinson and to Houston it was a disaster.
Wow, great dialogue here, but scary too.
I moved in here in 2007 (job transfer) but failed to do my due diligence and subsequently experienced my first hurricane with Ike. I lived in a townhome off Montrose & Allen Parkway but didn’t think it was so bad. I was ignorant of the rules about the aftermath and walked in the flood waters down Allen Parkway taking pictures.
From there, I experienced the back to back Tax Day and Memorial Day floods in 2016 and although that was troubling, I still wasn’t terrible scared.
Harvey. Enough said, right? I think we all agree #1. It was Harvey that gave me PTSD. My house sat in 13ft of water (thanks SJRA).
Imelda was a close call for flooding, but I fared okay.
The 2021 freeze….that was odd. I grew up in NJ, so you’d think I’d be fine. In fact, I was out in the snow, but honestly, the whole no power and freezing temps scared me (I kept thinking about the Twilight Zone episode The Midnight Sun where the earth is cooling/freezing). It scared me so much, my BP shot up horribly.
Beryl – amazed at the damage and disappointed at the complete lack of preparedness. Corp of Engineers performed an intensive study after Ike and Houston failed to act on recommendations – then paid the price with Harvey and beyond.
Of course, there’s non major events that cause flooding too. So this is all relative to each person’s experience based on weather event.
For us, Allison is number 1. We were renting a townhome in The Heights at the time, but it wasn’t so high because we were a block north of White Oak Bayou. We got 3-1/2 FEET of water in our downstairs! The ironic thing is that we ended up buying a little house in one of the most flood-prone parts of the city (between Meyerland and NRG), and we’ve lived here for 23 years now and have never flooded. (Knock on wood!)
Can we declare CenterPoint itself as a disaster? I don’t work there, but I would be so embarrassed if I caused this much confusion, dismay, and discomfort to over 2 million people. I can understand why they refuse to provide any meaningful updates, since the torches we need to see at night look like they’re meant for them. But patting themselves on the back and taking a victory lap for restoring 1M was pretty cruel. Lock them up.
For me personally this is the worst so far. Alicia may have been bad but too small to remember. Allison I guess I had new mom brain because I don’t even recall it and I was here. I have never been without power this long, had as much damage, or had to clean so many tree limbs
I remember Alicia vividly because the eye passed directly over our house. I was only four at the time, but that’s an experience that sticks with you.
Also, it uprooted one of the trees in our backyard, ruining my young hopes for a tree hammock.
Similar experience! I remember standing out back with my dad as the eye of Alicia passed, and how quickly and fiercely the storm resumed. My mom yelling at us to get back inside. I was four. I was amazed. I’ve taken these things seriously all my life, no doubt thanks to Alicia.
Lived in Houston from 85 to 2013, and have lived in Galveston since 2013. I agree with your list, although Ike was a worse personal experience for me (no power for 2 weeks in the Houston Heights) than Harvey, which did far less damage to Galveston than Houston. Currently going on 80 hours with no power here in G-town.
Looks like your list is going to keep changing in the short term. Hang in there! Wishing you all the best.
I’m sure data are still being gathered, but I hope that in a few weeks, you’ll give us a nice understandable summary of how and why the forecasts had “issues”. Either it didn’t weaken much over land as expected, or it strengthened greatly in the last 6 hours over water, or it moved faster than expected over land, so less time to weaken. Very late in the track, the models all aligned at landfall near Corpus Christi or maybe Victoria. Houston was in the cone at one point, but at the very northern edge and far away from the model tracks “spaghetti strands”. All this led to what would have been a 30 MPH event, becoming a 60+ MPH event (with 4x the wind loads) as far up as the Woodlands, where the eye remnants passed. This may have contributed to the less-than-appropriate preparation. I’d be very interested to hear what we learned from this storm regarding modeling.
Yesterday’s post covered some of this.
I know it was a different time when the Houston area was not as populated and dollar figures don’t compare. But living in Kemah in 1961 Hurricane Carla was the worst storm I’ve ever been involved with. I have yet seen a time with such flooding and wind damage.
Hurricane Alicia (1983) was pretty bad. I feel it was worse that Beryl. (yes i was here for it as well as all the storms on the list.) Baytown, where I live, was hit pretty bad during Alicia.
Thank you so much for what y’all do !
The professional way the weather forecast is presented is a gold standard for the art. Keep it up please and do not fall victim to those who try to detract and complain.
1979 Claudette dropped 40+ inches in Alvin.
We first visited Houston for my husband’s internships in summer of 2002, and heard a lot about Alison. My husband grew up in Florida so he knew about hurricanes (had survived Andrew just blocks from the beach). When we were in apartments we evacuated (Rita was memorable, especially since we were just ahead of the van full of seniors – and heard about them when we stopped at a McDonalds). I am originally from Wisconsin and have a lot of blankets “just in case” (lol) – but they sure came in handy during that freeze. We have our power back on now in the Pearland area (with the caveat that half of Brazoria County is still out), but some friends have gotten it back, and then lost it again. I’m not a fan of that – after you throw away the food do you dare to buy more or not?
Here for all of these. By myself for Allison and Ike. I remember with Allison thinking the rain would never stop. And then the mosquitoes. Ike was a Little House on the Prairie experience. Lost power at 10:30 pm when it came through and didn’t have power for 14 days. Chased ice to keep things cool. No genny. Blissfully quiet til neighbors had theirs. Cutting up limbs by hand and stacking them and branches level to the house on the curb. 42 inches of rain over Harvey but enough breaks that it drained. Lost power for almost three days during the freeze but had been loaned a genny so we could intermittently warm up. Significant limbs down during Beryl and no power for 28 hours. 10 inches of rain. Feel extremely fortunate.
Rita was a bear for a family property in the Piney Woods north of Livingston. Lost almost 100 trees and the chimney. Trucked water up when the well went offline after the power failed. Not as much coverage for that region because it wasn’t conducive to aerial footage given it’s density and Katrina still lingered.
With Beryl, the breadth of the power failures across so many communities for a comparatively smaller storm, when you’d hope technology was much better 16 years after Ike, has been a surprise. There will be a Rita-like reckoning in the aftermath, I’d expect.
I hope you are right, Heather, re Rita-like reckoning. The state needs to do better, and work with the feds, on this for the greater Houston area. I say the state, because the local government can only do so much without partnership/support from state-level leadership.
Not only is this personal for us and our communities, if we can’t build resiliency here, this has large national (and potentially international) impacts given Houston’s economic impact.
Wearing my SCW tshirt today. Thank you, Eric and Matt for all y’all do. Y’all are a lifeline for us!
I have been here longer than you, Eric (1981) , and I’d say Alicia was worse than Beryl. The numbers might not be so high as metro Houston had 1/2 the people then as it does now. Maybe even slightly less than half.
By the way, do we have any number is on the Integrated Kinetic Energy of Beryl? I’ve long thought Saffir-Simpson is obsolete as it only measures max sustained winds. IKE is a better measure of destructive power.
Harvey dropped enough rain to cover the state of Maine three feet deep
Agree with your list — born in 1969 and lived in Deer Park I would include Hurricane Alicia & TS Claudette 7/79 (remember coming home from Astros game 225 was flooded in Pasadena and there was no way to proceed so a random welder cut the guardrails so people could turn around and get off the freeway).
Looking further back in history, I would be remiss without also mentioning Hurricane Carla from stories from parents/grandparents and also the 1900 Galveston Hurricane (still the deadliest natural disaster in US history) that literally changed the development of the area. We live in a historic house in Galveston built in 1885 so it has survived a lot and it is amazing how well thought out and how they used to build houses all by hand. Build it like a wooden boat and treat with that mindset provides lots of resiliency.
Only the oldies like Monty and me remember Carla. I judge all hurricanes by her. We were sheltering in a friends 2 story brick 4 plex. You could walk down the main hall and feel the house shake & vibrate from the winds.
just a reminder… Eric was listing the storms he was here for. he wasn’t here for the C-storms in the 60’s and 70’s, or even Alicia; of course they live on near the top of the larger ‘worst storms for the area’ lists.
one thing i will say about Harvey though, because i get to see the effects up close, was the sheer trauma it caused. It’s probably the same for NOLA/Katrina folks. i don’t see any of these other storms stamping so much damage to the psyche.
I’ve lived here since 2006, and have followed your blog since the Chron days. Safe to say, this region has been put through the wringer weather-wise in my 18 years here (and no, I won’t be retiring here either).
I’d rank the storms I’ve experienced the same as you have, except I’d put Beryl at #4 (in place of Allison) and the Memorial Day flood (2015) at #5. I live in the Bellaire area, and Memorial Day was the first “surprise, out of the blue” flooding rainstorm I had seen in my time here. Fortunately we didn’t get any damage from it, but it was an eye-opener.
I have known numerous Houstonians who have either left the city or plan to upon retirement in large part due to the area being so prone to severe weather events. Can’t say that I blame them.
Was it Carla? That took out so many lives? Maybe not property destruction. Then the Galveston 1900 ?
The 1900 Galveston storm killed more people than any other natural disaster in US history. Maybe 8,000 people.
@ Eric Berger *** Thanks for all your words and coverage. I also love your posts @ ars.technica. Good work!
Should it be called winter storm uri ?
Naming winter storms is a divisive topic. I think Eric and Matt tend not to go with the names (rightfully so in my non-meteorologist opinion). The Weather Channel began the push to name storms. I think one of the arguments against naming them is that winter storms aren’t always as well-defined as a tropical system.
The widespread power outages are not surprising, considering the rapid growth Houston is undergoing both in terms of population and the resulting sprawl. Buried power lines are both ludicrously expensive and subject to their own issues — they are not very flood resistant. It would be far cheaper just to provide a tax credit for backup generators.
And as the old-timers have revealed, Beryl is simultaneously unprecedented and nothing new. For Eric to suggest that Houston bears some responsibility for its own weather emergencies is to violate his “Hype Free” pledge. Meanwhile, the century-long term trend is a steadily diminishing impact from tropical cyclones.
I wonder if Beryl will get retired. Aside from the power being out and the trees and branches coming down this was a minor storm. No major structural damage even on the coast and very minor flooding limited to the immediate coast. The biggest cost will come from Centerpoint and that will ultimately be passed down to their customers.
We’ve gratefully followed your site since Ike. Thanks for the calm, no-hype information.
On your list, you might have to reach way back to Hurricane Carla, which destroyed so much of Seabrook that they apparently sold Clear Lake waterfront land to Pasadena to raise cash.
I have lived in Houston a long time and I still remember Hurricane Alicia very well. Not a fun storm either!
Does anyone remember the October 1994 floods?
I’ve not heard any assessments of whether the amount of rain we’ve received this year saturating the soil was a factor in the number of downed trees. Appreciate your thoughts.
Not Eric or Matt, but my thought on this is that there were a great many trees that weren’t supplemental watered during last summer’s drought. On top of the visibly dead trees, you had trees that survived/remained green, but their root structure was severely compromised, so they had no grip. Then you had the derecho weaken them further, start them tipping. The rain this year might have then further loosened them below the surface. Add 75 mph winds and over they go. Also a lot of concrete poured since Ike, which also compromises nearby trees.
As a Houston resident since 1958, I have seen a lot of Houston weather events.
I regard Beryl as one of the more unusual. Just hard to believe the amount of damage from a supposedly Cat 1 storm. I watched Beryl’s rain and winds during the early morning hours and they seemed worse than Ike to me.
We live in a wooded area. Thankfully, we had no downed trees but Beryl created more broken limbs and debris than any storm that I have seen in my 66 years living in Houston.
Hurricane Carla was a monster storm that lasted for three days. Carla’s eye was so big that it took all day to pass over Houston. I’d guess that 50% of the homes suffered major roof damage. It was after Carla that timberline shingles became the norm in Houston. Only saving grace was that Houston was a much smaller place in 1961.
CenterPoint has their work cut out for them. Restoring power to well over two million customers has to be a job of Herculean proportion. I do give CenterPoint credit for restoring power pretty quickly after the May derecho.
Houston and our power problems made the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, CenterPoint may well share some of the blame, but consider as well the rapid growth of this metro area (along with the power grid), aging infrastructure in large portions of the service area, and rather frequent severe weather events and you have a mess of a situation. It’s largely a Houston problem.
Thanks for the great coverage since the Chron days. I moved here from Maryland a week after Katrina, so I’ve been here for all of your big five besides Allison. Was without power for 3 weeks (with a colicky baby) for Ike, so Ike and Beryl are currently tied in my head, and probably will remain so till I get power back. 😜
I would put derecho on the list, at least for me personally. Born and raised in Houston, I’ve never seen such an “out of the blue” event that catastrophic. I should mention that I live in the Heights, in the hardest hit area. I felt like Beryl’s wind didn’t compare the derecho wind strength, but Beryl’s wind lasted longer of course. Always fun to see what Mother Nature has in store for us!
Thank you for everything you do. Your insight is much appreciated every day
Anyone else lose power for the first time with today’s storms? With a 2.5 year old and 5 month old, I’m not looking forward to waiting for Centerpoint to get to us, given how many other people will be priority since they have been waiting
I would put Alicia in 1983 on the list as others have mentioned.
Do you ever think about leaving Houston? I’ve lived in other cities and they don’t have infrastructure-breaking natural disasters multiple times a year. In Florida home insurance is starting to become unaffordable, and I fear that will soon be the case in Houston.
The 1983 freeze ranks high on the list for me. Frozen (copper) pipes everywhere. We’d left on vacation just the day before the freeze – as new, transplanted (from the midwest) homeowners we had no idea that pipes in a house would freeze. We weren’t out of town for 24 hrs before we got the call of water running out of our house. When we got back we couldn’t get a plumber or plumbing supplies so we called another out-of-town neighbor and had him pick up plumbing supplies (several states away) and hand carry them back with him. You could hand carry plumbing supplies on the airplanes back then. Nearly everyone I knew had burst pipes.
As a retired emergency management professional from a local major healthcare system, I agree totally with your top five.
Ike , freeze and Harvey definitely are events I’ll never forget.
Eric, I’m curious about Personal weather stations and whether or not they’re accurate. I’m on the western side of Katy near sealy and was looking at data from some PWS on wunderground for specific neighborhoods , is that data accurate ?
There is really no point in living here anymore. Been through the list in person and weighing the pros and cons about living in Houston, has made me realize that life is too short to deal with this.
Additionally, Centerpoint Energy is a large part of the problem, but the politicians that have allowed them to exist in this scenario is also a HUGE the part of the problem. VOTE
From the first hit on a Google search of “Centerpoint Energy profits 2023”
CenterPoint Energy gross profit for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $6.707B, a 7.12% increase year-over-year. CenterPoint Energy annual gross profit for 2023 was $6.536B, a 4.91% increase from 2022. CenterPoint Energy annual gross profit for 2022 was $6.23B, a 3.54% increase from 2021
THIS IS A SERVICE PROVIDER!!!! FML
Profits over people at its absolute worst.
Think about this for a moment. $6.7 billion in profits, while so many of us suffer. There is literally no excuse for their failures, other than not giving a F about people all while becoming millionaires. We all need to wake up and change this
The insane profits to the already wealthy are a feature, not a bug, of deregulation. Meanwhile we are all still covering the costs of $9,000/MWh electricity during the freeze.
And the party that has been in control for all of this tried to blame the other side. Don’t get me started.
Good list. I would put the freeze at #1. During the storms we could at least shout to our neighbors. The freeze kept us all inside and alone.
I agree with the other comments about Alicia. I remember the way the wind sounded as it was tearing up our neighbors’ roofs. That’s what Beryl sounded like.
Copied;
FIRE Centerpoints Board
July 11, 2024 at 4:33 pm
There is really no point in living here anymore. Been through the list in person and weighing the pros and cons about living in Houston, has made me realize that life is too short to deal with this.
Additionally, Centerpoint Energy is a large part of the problem, but the politicians that have allowed them to exist in this scenario is also a HUGE the part of the problem. VOTE
From the first hit on a Google search of “Centerpoint Energy profits 2023”
CenterPoint Energy gross profit for the twelve months ending March 31, 2024 was $6.707B, a 7.12% increase year-over-year. CenterPoint Energy annual gross profit for 2023 was $6.536B, a 4.91% increase from 2022. CenterPoint Energy annual gross profit for 2022 was $6.23B, a 3.54% increase from 2021
THIS IS A SERVICE PROVIDER!!!! FML
Profits over people at its absolute worst.
Think about this for a moment. $6.7 billion in profits, while so many of us suffer. There is literally no excuse for their failures, other than not giving a F about people all while becoming millionaires. We all need to wake up and change this
I am a native Houstonian. Houstonians are resilient! We get knocked down but we keep getting back up. Proud to live in Houston.
Thanks for the weather updates.
Not a bad list. But Eric Berger has only been here since 1997. The Great Storm of 1900 that killed over 10,000 people in Galveston. Hurricane Carla of 1961 that decimated almost the entire Gulf Coast of the USA.
I have lived through your top five as well and would add the derecho in there as least for the impact to my neighborhood and downtown. Our home was without power for six days. I still don’t have my car back from the shop due to derecho related damage. My building downtown had over 1200 panes of glass damaged or broken and we worked from home for over a month as a result.