KATY, Texas — We’re getting a better idea of how a tornado that hit west Harris County formed and its path thanks to new storm reports from the National Weather Service.
We now know the strength and path of that tornado, which touched down in the Katy area as strong storms passed through Southeast Texas early Wednesday morning.
The weather service said that at 2:47 a.m., an EF-1 tornado rotating at 90 miles per hour made rubble of a Firestone building on South Mason Road. It blew out windows from the surrounding strip mall and hurled an air-conditioning unit into the parking lot.
The survey team says it hit quickly, then lifted away, but we now know it didn't entirely dissipate. in fact, after that initial blunt force, the tornado lost some of its tightness, but it kept going.
It widened and weakened, going from an EF-1 to an EF-0 as it continued for another one and a half miles into a neighborhood just east of there.
It ripped limbs from trees, uprooting some of them, and damaged homes.
All in all, the total path was 1.67 miles. It was 300 yards wide and lasted from 2:47 a.m. to 2:49 a.m. In just two minutes, it did all that damage.
The tornado is number 248 in Harris County since we started keeping count back in 1950.