News - Blogs - Texas and Alabama tornadoes and Oklahoma drought updates

Texas and Alabama tornadoes and Oklahoma drought updates
Published: 1/26/2012 12:25 PM
Last Modified: 1/26/2012 12:25 PM

A woman, left, talks on her cell phone while helping remove debris from a damaged home in Clay, Ala. after the area was hit by a tornado Monday. HAL YEAGER/AP Photo/The Birmingham News

Lightning streaks across the sky in north central San Antonio as a line of thunderstorms moves through the Hill Country area early Wednesday. JOHN DAVENPORT/AP Photo/San Antonio Express-News

There were at least 10 tornadoes early Monday in Alabama, according to the latest National Weather Service reports via the Associated Press.

An outbreak of storms across central Alabama included an EF-2 that left a 40-mile path of damage, tearing apart trees in Talladega National Forest, damaging homes and businesses and even the sanctuary of a historical church, Ephesus Church.

The deadliest one, according to AP reports, was an EF-3 tornado that resulted in two deaths -- a 16-year-old girl and elderly man -- and more than 100 injuries. This storm reportedly had maximum wind speeds near 150 mph.

Worse still, Alabama is forecast to have more severe weather today, which could produce flooding and even more tornadoes.

Texas tornadoes

The latest AP reports still report three tornadoes from storms Wednesday in Texas, all near Austin, San Antonio and Houston. However, no injuries have been reported.

A fun line from the AP wire: The downpour was celebrated in drought-stricken Washington County near Houston. Emergency management coordinator Robert Smith says the rural area's ranches finally have water and, "I think the cows are doing a jig."

You can read a full weather service Houston area storm report here,

Here is the latest tornado information off this report:

7:17 a.m. Wednesday: Tornado near Brenham Municipal Airport destroyed several small buildings, removing a barn roof and snapping numerous large trees. Tornado path was 50 yard wide and 2.5 miles long.

12:05 p.m. Wednesday: EF-0 tornado in Pearland. Damage included a gas station pump awning destroyed and a roof of business peeled back. Tornado damage path was 75 yards wide and 200 yards long.

Brenham is northwest of Houston and south of College Station. Pearland is southeast of Houston and northwest of Galvaston.

As always with severe weather such as tornadoes, keep in mind that information is preliminary and is subject to change as more information is discovered and reported to officials.

Oklahoma drought

Next week, you can thank heavy rainfall and even a "weird spider leg thing" for a more positive drought report.

I say "next week" because drought reports are based on information compiled by Tuesday and our much-needed rainfall in virtually every corner of the state except the Panhandle is not included in this drought update.

Thus, the map changes are subtle, much like the "weird spider leg thing" (as described by Oklahoma Climatological Survey associate state climatologist Gary McManus in his report here) of rain moving through southeast Oklahoma.

Rather than play games this morning, I will just come out and show the differences in the usual gif:

As the maps show, northeastern Oklahoma was upgraded to D0 for abnormally dry up from nothing in some areas.

Here's another interesting map -- percentage of normal rainfall statewide for the past 30 and 60 days:

xxx

Put simply, Tulsa Country really needed that rain we got yesterday and Tuesday.

--Althea Peterson

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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