Natural Disasters

Oklahoma Storms: What Is It Like Living in Tornado Alley?

This summer will mark my 10-year anniversary of moving to Houston. I don't miss Oklahoma often, but the last two days have been particularly hard. I've been glued to the Internet and NPR, absorbing the news with an emotion that can only be described as helplessness. Moore, Oklahoma, the area hardes ... More >>

Weather Sucks: Thank God We Only Have Hurricanes to Deal with in Houston

"It's already here! - Twister Overnight in north Texas, a rash of tornadoes killed at least six people and injured many more. There could be another outbreak of twisters tonight as dry, cool air from the north slams into warm Gulf air over Texas. It's unfortunately a common occurrence for an area l ... More >>

And So It Begins: We Have Our First Tropical Depression Of The Year

There comes a time every May where the days start to get a little longer, the temperatures start to get a little hotter, and our eyes turn to those big bodies of water flanking us that we've been ignoring the last few months. Hurricane season may start June 1, but the truth is hurricanes form when t ... More >>

Hunker Down: The Hurricane Forecasts Are Out. Five Things to Keep in Mind

It's that time again. No, not hurricane season, it's hurricane predictin' season, partner. So, get out yer slide rule and a room full of super computers. Grab the nerdiest guy you can find and shelter in place because this is going to be a wild ride. Every year in April, the forecasters begin layin ... More >>

Ready for Hurricane Season? The Predictions Are Starting to Come In

Last year when the world was held rapt at the plight of northeastern residents during "Super Storm" Sandy, we along the Gulf Coast chuckled. Not at the suffering of the people there. In fact, we understand those poor people and what the went through better than just about anyone. We were laughing ov ... More >>

Kings X Drummer Jerry Gaskill Loses Home In Hurricane Sandy

Rocks Off readers of a certain age will fondly remember Jerry Gaskill as the drummer from pioneering proto-grunge/metal band King's X. Perhaps many of you, like us, even had tickets to trio's show earlier this year at Warehouse Live that was cancelled after Gaskill had a heart attack. More bad news ... More >>

Advice on Handling Hurricane Sandy From the Gulf Coast (i.e. Hurricane Central)

Hey, East Coast, how you doin'? Sorry, our Jersey accent is a little rusty. We along the Gulf Coast have been watching with interest the furor over Hurricane Sandy as it makes its way towards the Jersey Shore. Maybe the hurricane wants to do some gambling. Maybe it wants to renact the entire movie S ... More >>

Breaking News: Funnel Cloud Warning for Fort Bend County

Click 2 Houston is passing on a weather report warning of possible funnel clouds this morning in Fort Bend County. The report says that rapidly developing thunderstorms coupled with "a very buoyant atmosphere" will lead to funnel clouds. Their report follows:

Five Lessons Learned from Hurricane Isaac

The circus has finally left New Orleans as they begin their clean up after Hurricane Isaac dropped boatloads of rain on the Big Easy earlier this week. Despite some dire early warnings and a near-miss of the GOP convention in Tampa Bay, Isaac was fairly tame by hurricane standards. That didn't stop ... More >>

Rest Easy, Texas (Well, Not Too Easy): Tropical Storm Isaac Inching Its Way Toward Louisiana

Fortunately for everyone along the Gulf Coast, Isaac is still a tropical storm as of Monday morning. The storm has yet to form a solid inner core thanks to some wind shear from an upper-level disturbance near it, but that will change as it moves toward the northern Gulf Coast. Isaac should slow down ... More >>

Tropics Heating Up as We Reach the Stretch Run of Hurricane Season

Despite June and July's tropical bluster, as predicted, it's been a fairly quiet hurricane season. With eight named storms, three of which were hurricanes -- none of them stronger than a category two and only one making landfall (in Mexico) -- the pace has been just about what forecasters thought at ... More >>

Know Your Local Media: KPRC's Frank Billingsley Keeps You Calm During the Storm

As someone fascinated by hurricanes and living in Houston, the summer of 2005 was an odd and captivating time for me. A record was set for the number of named storms and major hurricanes in a season, and Houston was caught staring down the barrel of a gun twice, first with Hurricane Katrina and then ... More >>

Hey, Look, It's Summer! Houston's Normal Summer Weather Has Finally Arrived

Stephen Colbert described Houston weather as a combination of the heat of Texas and the humidity of New Orleans. That's actually not far off in the summer. We are a fairly tropical climate. For the past couple weeks, however, it's felt more like a jungle during monsoon season. Now that Mother Nature ... More >>

App of the Week: NOAA Hi-Def Radar's Tracks Rain, Hurricanes and More

App: NOAA Hi-Def Radar Platform: iPhone Website: Apple Store Cost: $1.99 Anyone who knows me or reads my posts on this blog (thanks, mom!) knows I am a bit of a weather nerd and by that I mean I am a serious weather nerd. I've ranked and reviewed numerous weather apps and have an entire folder on m ... More >>

Heat? Check. Rain? Check. Hurricanes? Maybe Not. Summer in Houston, 2012

If you don't like Houston, probably at the top of your list of reasons why is the summer. For those not accustomed to the -- let's call it "sticky" -- weather the Bayou City offers from July through September each year, it can be a brutal three or four months. Of course, for people like me who have ... More >>

Tropical Storm Debby Apparently Wants to Do Florida

We know, we know, but that joke is never going to get old. As we discussed last week, that disturbed area of weather in the southern Gulf of Mexico has done spun itself up into a tropical storm. The National Weather Service designated Tropical Storm Debby on Saturday afternoon and reported she it co ... More >>

Debby Does Houston? Disturbance in the Gulf Bears Watching

The images you see above are recent model runs from two of the major weather forecasting models, both predicting a large hurricane -- which would bear the name Debby -- along the Texas coast middle of next week. And you thought the only supplies you'd be stocking up on next week were fireworks for J ... More >>

Jo Koy

Know Your Local Media: The Chron's Eric Berger on Hurricanes, Climate Change and Evacuating Katy

Full disclosure: In 2000, I was working on a grassroots campaign supporting the arena referendum that passed and resulted in the building of Toyota Center. At the time, the Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger was covering the campaign, a less contentious follow-up to the loss suffered a year earlier tha ... More >>

Hurricane Season 2012: The Predictions -- A Quiet Year in the Tropics?

With so few storms impacting the U.S. last season and with one of the worst droughts in recorded history gripping our region, it would be tempting to think that last year was a down year in hurricane production. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In 2011, the Atlantic produced 19 named storms incl ... More >>

Early Forecasts Calling for a Quieter Than Normal Hurricane Season

Did you enjoy the winter? Went quick, didn't it? It seems like just 15 minutes ago, we were all lounging in the cool Houston winter while our northern neighbors were breaking out the snow plows. We laughed and laughed. Now, we've started to reach that wonderful time when even your beads of sweat hav ... More >>

Hank Schyma: Southern Backtones Singer Is Fearless Tornado Chaser

If you saw the dramatic footage out of North Texas Tuesday, hopefully from the safety of your living room or gathered around a TV at work, you know that weather events like those tornadoes can make pretty compelling television. And someone has to head straight into those storms to film all that vide ... More >>

Houston's Long Hot Dry Year: 2011 Year in Weather

There's an old saying, "If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait." In 2011, that statement was on full display as we suffered some of the wildest weather changes the state has ever seen. In Houston, there was at least some consistency. Unfortunately, that consistency came in the form of a bruta ... More >>

Bold Prediction: Nate Won't Hit Houston and Neither Will Any Other Hurricanes This Season

One of the reliable forecast models showing Nate hitting Mexico, leaving us high and dry.​I'm not much of a betting man, but if I were, I would take odds that the Texas coast, and Houston specifically, will see no hurricane landfalls in 2011. We have a pretty substantial tropical storm in Nate ... More >>

The Cool Fronts, The Wild Fires and the High Pressure Shuffle

Sad drought makes The Boss sad.​With apologies to Bruce Springsteen for a weak attempt at borrowing his album title, the truth is our weather has been about as crazy and out of control as a three-hour rock show, except instead of booming speakers, girls flashing the stage and a ring of pot smo ... More >>

Drought vs. Tropical Storm: Whose Side Are You On? Take Our Poll

Careful what you wish for.​There's a 70 percent chance a tropical storm will develop in the Gulf in Mexico's Bay of Campeche. Computer models show a chance it could drift northward, strengthening and possibly becoming a large hurricane aimed at New Orleans or points east. It won't come to Te ... More >>

Dandy Don? Tropical Storm Could Bring Drought Relief This Weekend

Courtesy Weather UndergroundSee that little cloud mass by the Yucatan Peninsula...that's our boy!​Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you that just because it had been quiet in the tropics, that didn't mean it would stay that way? Well, I hate to say I told you so. A disturbance that will ... More >>

TS Don: And Then, Depression Set In -- Tropical Storm Could Bear Down on Texas by Friday (Updated)

Courtesy National Hurricane CenterLittle Donnie is getting bigger.​The National Hurricane Center reconnaissance plane found winds strong enough in Invest 90 to declare it the fourth tropical depression tropical storm of the 2011 hurricane season -- their next full report is at 6 p.m. As we m ... More >>

Hurricane Update: The Calm Before the Storm?

Let's hope not.​This year has brought record droughts, killer tornados and devastating flooding, yet our hurricane season has yet to rev up. This may cause some to believe we could be spared from substantial tropical activity this year. Don't believe it. What may seem like a quiet tropical At ... More >>

Run for Your Lives: Five Questions to Ask When You Are Considering Evacuating for a Hurricane

​It's almost July and we have our first Atlantic storm of the season in Tropical Storm Arlene. Fortunately, it doesn't appear that Arlene will grow larger than a minimal hurricane, if that, before it makes landfall along the Mexican gulf coast. Unfortunately, it won't come close enough to us ... More >>

App of the Week: Top Nine Websites for Hurricane Season

Literally, the weather authority when it comes to hurricanes, it's hard to beat the NHC.​I swear that after this post, I will stop talking about weather apps and websites for a while, but since it is hurricane season here on the Gulf Coast, I figured one more post won't hurt anybody and it mig ... More >>

App of the Week: Three Hurricane Tracking Apps Just in Time for Hurricane Season

Hurricane is about as good as it gets for tracking storms on your phone.​App: Hurricane Platforms: iPhone Web site: Apple Link Cost: $3.99 App: iHurricane HD Platforms: iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile Web site: Download Link Cost: $2.99 App: Hurricane Tracker Platforms: iPhone Web ... More >>

The Five Worst Tropical Weather Events in Houston History

The hurricane that hit Galveston in 1915 didn't have a name, but it left a mark.​Houston and Galveston, like any cities along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the U.S., are always vulnerable to tropical weather. The scariest of these events is most definitely the hurricane, with its fierce wind ... More >>

Hurricane Season 2011: The Predictions

Hurricane Ike's track from all the way out in the Atlantic to the Texas coast.​Hurricane season is upon us. Just like Christmas, but with high winds and death from above instead of toys and egg nog, it creeps up on us quicker than we expect and, before we know it, we're knee deep in a disaster ... More >>

Hurricane Predictions: Feds Say to Hunker Down

Rita, when it was coming for us.​The time to predict hurricane season has arrived, and -- as with Texans season previews -- what's predicted doesn't always tend to be what happens. So get your grain of salt ready. (On the other hand, severe weather has been the norm elsewhere in the U.S. rece ... More >>

Summer AND Hurricane Season Over For Houston (Unofficially, But We're Going With It)

We are NOT jinxing anything​Not to jinx anything, but it looks very much like Houston has avoided any real tropical storm experience in what was/is supposed to be the hyperactive hurricane season of 2010.When Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle says so, that's good enough for us. And if we're ove ... More >>

Where The Hurricanes At? Weather Guys Say They Are Coming

Despite predictions, 2010 is no 2005 for hurricanes.​Each year we are treated to a barrage of predictions from noted hurricane experts about how active a hurricane season we will have in the Atlantic basin which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This year, the predictions were rat ... More >>

Hurricanes And The Oil Spill: There's Good News And Bad News

Hurricanes would help and hurt in fighting the spill​As oil continues flowing into the Gulf the first tropical storm of the season, Blas, is rolling off the Southwest Pacific coast of Mexico and another tropical disturbance is rumbling a few hundred miles south of the gulf of Tehuantepec, we're st ... More >>

Hurricane Season: You Can Officially Assume The Worst

Let the worrying begin!​That weather disturbance out in the Atlantic is now considered unlikely to become Tropical Storm Alex. So we can all relax, right?No. The fact that we're even talking about a tropical disturbance there, at this point in the season, is oh so ominous, according to the experts ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Steel Magnolias, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Tamarie Cooper Show: Journey to the Center of My Brain (in 3-D)

Capsule Stage Reviews: Steel Magnolias, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Tamarie Cooper Show: Journey to the Center of My Brain (in 3-D)

Keep Your Fingers Crossed -- Now We're Down To Only Four Predicted Hurricanes

​The pattern seems to be holding up -- in the year after getting hit by a major storm, when you're all tense and on edge for hurricane season -- you get a break.The Colorado State University storm forecasters (Motto: Why Do We Care About Hurricanes In Colorado?) have once again cut the number of p ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Reckless, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Wiz

Katrina Housing Aid Is Ending. For Real, This Time

It seems like a long, long time ago, those crazy days when hurricanes Katrina and Rita came ashore.In Houston, we mostly felt the effects of Katrina, of course, as New Orleans evacuees came over. Some started lives here, others eventually went home.But now -- finally, some would say -- the rent assi ... More >>

Don't Let The Doorknob Hit You In The Ass On The Way Out, 2008 Hurricane Season

As of 12:01 a.m. today, the 2008 hurricane season is over. That doesn't mean there won't be any more hurricanes, it just means when they occur we'll be told what a surprise they are.As a practical matter, of course, Texas is largely free of hurricanes once you get into late September.But now we're r ... More >>

Ten Reasons Drayton McLane Might’ve Rejected Bud Selig’s Plea to Get Out of Town

Time for the Astrodome to Step Up?

Top Five Houstonians As Hurricanes

Holy Sh--!

The most-hyped hurricane season ever is upon us

Changing the Channel

For years, homeowners, developers, environmentalists and the federal government have wrangled over a flood-control plan for Clear Creek. Now a compromise is in view -- but the creek's future is murkier than ever.