TornadoLookup

Home / Texas / Fort Bend

EF1 tornado in Fort Bend County, Texas

Tornado August 26, 2017 · Fort Bend County, Texas

EF1
Rating
1.3 mi
Whole path
50 yd
Path width
$1.5M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Waller County → Fort Bend County → Waller County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Tornado touched down near Trailer World RV and Boat Storage facility then crossed Interstate 10. It did minor damage to Bucees car wash area then ripped large air conditioning units off top of Pepperl Fuchs buiding. Finally in damaged awnings near Builders First building. Tornado crossed from Fort Bend into Waller County. This entry documents Fort Bend County segment.

The wider storm

Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas during the evening of August 25th. The storm then weakened to a tropical storm and slowed, looping back and tracking over SE Texas then back over the Gulf of Mexico making a second landfall along the Louisiana coast during the early morning hours of August 30th. Over that 5 day period over Southeast Texas TS Harvey produced catastrophic flooding with a large area of 30 to 60 inches of rain, 23 tornadoes, tropical storm force winds and a moderate storm surge near Matagorda Bay. In some of the heavier bands rain fell at a rate of over 5 inches per hour. This copious record amount of rain over a led to catastrophic flooding. Thousands of homes, businesses, and roads were flooded due to flash flooding and sheet flow from long duration intense rain. Main stem rivers and adjoining tributaries, creeks and bayous reached full capacity and came out of their banks and this also contributed to the massive flooding across southeastern Texas.

Began near Katy (29.7760, -95.8440).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

20 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 767338. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.