Thunderstorm Wind in Medina County, Texas

Hail propelled by winds estimated at over 80 mph broke windows and destroyed vegetation across the southeast corner of the county. The hail was piled up to 3 feet deep in many locations, and, in spite of temperatures through the mid morning in the mid 60s to near 70, hail piles were still visible at noon when the NWS survey team arrived. Over 1000 windows were broken out of homes and cars in Devine. Major damage was reported to 12 homes with minor damage to nearly 1300 others. Hundreds of cars were damaged by the combination of wind and hail. Also several school buses were damaged.

The damage at Hondo was due to the combination of a large tornado, severe downburst winds and large hail. The event was classic, as taught in the NWS Skywarn training program. Severe downburst winds (estimated in excess of 100 miles an hour), struck first, followed by heavy rain, then hail to the size of golfballs, and finally, just in front of the tornado, winds began to calm. This is the classic sequence – wind – rain – hail – calm – tornado. Wind damage began 2 miles northwest of the Hondo Airport, continued across the downtown area, and ended 5 miles southeast of the center of town. This damage was characterized by large limbs knocked from trees, trees uprooted, roofs and winds torn from homes and businesses, and power lines knocked down.

Thunderstorms moving eastward through Medina County produced widespread wind damage. The Red Cross reported that 32 homes were destroyed, 44 had major damage, and 194 homes had minor damage. Numerous mobile homes suffered roof and wall damage. The city of Castroville was without power from 1639 CST until 0530 CST the next morning. Very heavy rain accompanied the storms, reducing visibility to near zero. Some of the residents reported a dark green color to the clouds just before the storm stuck. Although no large hail was reported, the hail piled into drifts along the side of the road just west of D'Hanis. Very little damage was reported at the Castroville Airport as most aircraft were tied down or put away at the time of the storms.