Thunderstorm Wind — Smith, Texas

2022-04-05 · near Whitehouse, Smith, Texas

Event narrative

A downburst affected much of the southern and eastern sections of the city of Whitehouse, resulting in numerous trees being snapped and uprooted along its path. The majority of the more significant damage occurred in an east-southeasterly direction, which began in the Willows subdivision just west of Willingham Road, where several small Bradford pear trees were snapped, and small areas of shingles were ripped from the roofs of a couple of homes with winds estimated in the range of 70-75 mph. The winds from this downburst intensified as it crossed Willingham Road, affecting several streets along and to the west of Highway 110. Here, numerous hardwood trees and large limbs were snapped and uprooted, with winds consistent of 90-95 mph. Trees fell on at least 4 homes in this area. The maximum winds near 100 mph from this downburst were estimated as it impacted the Whitehouse Mobile Home and RV Park, where multiple large trees were snapped and uprooted. Unfortunately, one fatality occurred here as a large pine tree fell onto an RV on Barbara Drive, killing a 71 year-old male sleeping inside. Additional large hardwood trees were downed along and to the north of Hagan Road, Railroad Avenue, before weakening as it entered the Waterton subdivision on East Main Street. It should be noted that wind damage was noted across much of Smith County and East Texas from these severe thunderstorms.

Wider weather episode

Warm, moist, and unstable air spread north across North and East Texas, North Louisiana, and extreme Southern Arkansas during the evening through the early morning hours of April 4th-5th, behind a warm front that lifted north through these areas. Meanwhile, an upper trough dug through Western Texas and into the Southern Plains during the afternoon and evening hours of the 4th, enhancing large scale forcing along and ahead of a dry line that developed and spread east across North-central Texas. This resulted in shower and thunderstorm development which rapidly intensified over this area, which spread east into East Texas during the late evening through the early morning hours of the 4th-5th. Given the extent of instability and the strong southerly low level jet in place, these storms became severe as they spread east across East Texas and North Louisiana, resulting in numerous reports of damaging winds as these storms organized into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) which quickly spread across the region through the pre-dawn hours. These storms exited East Texas shortly after 1 am on the 5th.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1010118. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.