Tornado Warning Near Friendswood, Severe Thunderstorm Warnings Across Harris County

A tornado warning covered parts of Harris County, including the Friendswood area, with the alert listed as active until 7:15 p.m. Saturday night, while multiple severe thunderstorm warnings swept across Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Wharton, Liberty and Waller counties. Officials from NWS Houston and Harris County Homeland Security urged extreme caution as storms moved through southeast Texas.

The National Weather Service’s watches and warnings extended across the region: a tornado watch applied to Harris County, Fort Bend, Galveston and Montgomery counties and was reported in effect until 9 p.m., and the NWS issued tornado warnings for League City, Friendswood, Dickinson, Texas City and areas near Galveston Saturday night. An automated ABC13 Facebook alert credited to “ABC13-Travis Herzog” posted: “A Severe Thunderstorm Warning has been issued for the following counties (Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Wharton, Liberty, Waller) until Feb 14 6:45PM. A tornado is possible along the leading edge of the storm line. Seek shelter immediately if you are included in this warning.”

Meteorological threats cited by local outlets and the weather service included tornadoes, hail, heavy rain, lightning and damaging gusts. Houston Public Media reported: “Across the Southeast Texas region, the National Weather Service warned of wind gusts up to 60 mph, along with heavy rain, lightning and hail.” Social posts captured in ABC13’s thread described varied local conditions, one commenter, Nita Costello, wrote: “We are south of Pearland. We got 40 plus MPH wind. It was fast moving. It's gone.” Other comments ranged from reports of green flashes in the sky to brief heavy rain with little wind.

Infrastructure impacts appeared rapidly Saturday evening: CenterPoint Energy reported more than 30,000 residents and businesses were without electricity at about 8 p.m. in the region, according to Houston Public Media. Click2Houston and TV 8 carried live-radar coverage and headlines such as “Houston and most of southeast Texas under a Tornado Watch Until 9 p.m.” as emergency messages and warning polygons circulated on social media and local broadcasts.

The storm episode arrives amid recent regional tornado activity: Houston Public Media noted two tornadoes touched down in northwest Harris County in late November and two tornadoes earlier this month in Liberty County, northeast of Houston. Forecasts published after the Saturday night storms called for clearing by Sunday with partly sunny skies and a high near 70 degrees for Houston.

For context on severity and response, Houston Public Media explained: “A tornado watch means tornadoes are possible, while a tornado warning means a tornado has been sighted or indicated by radar.” Local residents who were included in ABC13’s warning were urged to seek shelter immediately, and Harris County Homeland Security continued to advise extreme caution as crews and utilities assessed outages and damage.