STORM2K

http://www.click2houston.com/news/2543039/detail.html

Possible Funnel Cloud Hits Sugar Land Church

Baptist Academy Evacuated

POSTED: 9:57 a.m. CDT October 9, 2003
UPDATED: 10:23 a.m. CDT October 9, 2003

SUGAR LAND, Texas -- A possible funnel cloud or high winds damaged a Fort Bend County church Thursday morning, News2Houston reported.

Officials said that the severe weather hit around 9:30 a.m. at the Sugar Creek Baptist Church complex, 13213 Southwest Freeway.

"One of our buildings was hit by some kind of small funnel cloud," said Tim Wall, with Sugar Creek Baptist Church. "There are some broken windows in mostly glass areas of the buildings (that) have been damaged a little bit and part of the front entry to the building has been blown."

The damaged building is used by the Fort Bend Baptist Academy for its middle school campus. All of the students were evacuated and no one was injured.

"It had just started to rain. It was pretty dark and rainy. All of a sudden, we noticed a few things tapping on the windows -- debris sort of in the air," Wall said. "By the time I got out there, it was done. It must have happened very quick."

A home in the 2900 block of Country Club Boulevard, in the neighboring Sugar Creek subdivision, received some roof damage.

"We only have one house (damaged). I'm not going to downplay that but that would lead me to believe, right off the bat, that this maybe more along the lines of straight-line winds or just from a thunderstorm -- winds from a thunderstorm," News2Houston meteorologist Wes Hohenstein said. "The system moving through today isn't the type that would produce a tornado."

For more information on this breaking story, stay tuned to News2Houston and Click2Houston.com.

Wow! I'm glad nobody was hurt.

I didn't realize these storms were even out there. (shame on me lol) Thanks for the heads up though...looks like some of them are headed this way.

As I look outside, the rain has already started here. I'll be out and about in a little while...guess I'm gonna get wet...hehe.

Looks like a busy day for SE TX and also my area, although no rain has developed yet. Keep an eye to the sky everyone!

It's been raining here for a little over an hour. PT, it's coming your way. Read below.

I have a question - what does WW stand for as in "WW is not currently anticipated."


ACUS11 KWNS 091720
SWOMCD
SPC MCD 091719
LAZ000-TXZ000-091915-

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 2438
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1219 PM CDT THU OCT 09 2003

AREAS AFFECTED...UPPER TEXAS/SW LA COASTAL AREAS

CONCERNING...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL

VALID 091719Z - 091915Z

WW IS NOT CURRENTLY ANTICIPATED...BUT TRENDS ARE STILL BEING
MONITORED FOR THIS POSSIBILITY.

AFTER BRIEFLY WEAKENING/BACKING...FLOW IN THE 3 TO 5 KM AGL LAYER
HAS ONCE AGAIN STRENGTHENED ACROSS THE UPPER TEXAS COASTAL REGION.
THIS APPEARS LIKELY IN RESPONSE TO SOUTHEASTWARD PROGRESSION OF HIGH
LEVEL SPEED MAXIMUM NOW OVER NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS...AND PROGGED INTO
SOUTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA BY EARLY THIS EVENING. LARGE-SCALE FORCING
FOR UPWARD VERTICAL MOTION WITH THIS FEATURE HAS SUPPORTED LARGE
CONVECTIVE CLUSTER NEAR/NORTHWEST OF COLLEGE STATION...WITH
INCREASING CONVECTIVE ACTIVITY IN ZONE OF STRONGER LOW-LEVEL WARM
ADVECTION SOUTHEASTWARD INTO THE UPPER TEXAS COAST. WITH DAYTIME
HEATING CONTRIBUTING TO DESTABILIZATION IN VERY MOIST BOUNDARY LAYER
WITH MID 70S DEW POINTS...THERMODYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT HAS BECOME
SUPPORTIVE OF THUNDERSTORMS IN MORE VIGOROUS UPDRAFTS IN AND AROUND
THE HOUSTON AREA.

WITH APPROACH OF HIGH-LEVEL SPEED MAXIMUM AND WEAK MID-LEVEL
CIRCULATION EMBEDDED WITHIN CONVECTIVE CLUSTER...HODOGRAPHS WILL
REMAIN FAVORABLE FOR ISOLATED SUPERCELLS WITH TORNADOES...AND MAY
INCREASE A BIT...THIS AFTERNOON. THREAT IS EXPECTED TO GRADUALLY
SPREAD OUT OF THE HOUSTON TX AREA INTO THE VICINITY OF LAKE CHARLES
AND ADJACENT COASTAL AREAS BY THE 20-21Z TIME FRAME.

Good question Duck - maybe one of our mets can tell us what that means.

"WW"

I have never seen WW in a NWS outlook before, but I do not read them real often either. Considering what we are experiencing and what that says it must mean "wild weather"!!!

I'll make a guess, does it mean "weather watch"? As in a Tornado watch or Severe thunderstorm watch.

Yep... the letters "WW" mean Weather Watch.

woo hoo, got it right!

Thanks, PT and Rock!

SG, how's it look in your area now?

That possible tornado has been confirmed as an F(0) tornado according to local OCM's. We've had 3 more Tornado warnings but no more confirmations that I know of. Definitely were some hook echos on the radar where they were saying they were though!

That's right, "WW" means a "Weather Watch." I have read this in National Weather Service Storms Prediction Center Mesoscale Discussions (from Norman, Oklahoma) many times.