The Weather (Houston, Dallas, Plano: house, buy, live in)

[Guerilla]

Originally Posted by KewGee

In the past 56 years, Harris County (Houston) has had 211 tornadoes, Dallas County, 80, and Tarrant County, 76. That is quite a big difference overall.

Harris County is also larger than both of those counties combined.

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by Guerilla

Harris County is also larger than both of those counties combined.

That's a good point about which I didn't think. Tarrant and Dallas combined is 1,742 square miles and Harris is 1,728, so the two counties would almost "fit" into Harris.

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by midnightbirdgirl

Well, where I live it is boring, that is likely true with the other poster. There is no weather to speak of...except gusting winds.
It rarely rains, in the summer it is hotter than heck, 115+ is not unusual, oh but it is a dry heat And winters are dry and cold...like in the teens... so yeah, boring.
Thank you though for the heads up, since we have yet to buy, and are currently looking.
MBG

You might think the weather here is far from boring in the Spring or any other time of the year when the violence in the skies happen. Personally, I hate it, but I can appreciate one being excited about something different.

I promise you will be bored to tears when summer gets here. For 5 months, every day is the same, hotter than heck, humid, hazy skies, bugs, ugly brown, plants and trees dying of thirst so it makes most people beg for Fall which is an eternity off when the May or before heat and humidity begin.

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Well they failed miserably. It is only NOW that they are showing pics of damage that was done in Eastern Dallas County. When I finally flipped over to Ch. 5 after I got tired of watching the same footage of the rv's in Haltom City they were showing many rotations near where my husband was and one close by to me. Only could hear the sirens off in the background when I opened the front door. During the entire time that the storm was moving thru this part of the metroplex they would barely talk about it and then went back to more pictures of hail that happened an hour earlier and the same rv's turned over.

...............

[socketz]

Originally Posted by Guerilla

Harris County is also larger than both of those counties combined.

But it proves the point even further.

Dallas + Tarrant is still less than Harris.

Another poster showed that the square miles of Harris is slightly less than these two....

So in the end, the probability of a twister in Harris county still appears to be higher than Dallas + Tarrant counties.

Now, I'd be curious to see what changes when you throw Collin and Denton counties into the mix because all of these counties are interconnected and feel like a whole (i.e. the local news doesn't really segment by county).

That would probably give a better picture of what the tornado threat 'feels' like here, as opposed to what actually occurs on a county by county basis.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by socketz

But it proves the point even further.

Dallas + Tarrant is still less than Harris.

Another poster showed that the square miles of Harris is slightly less than these two....

So in the end, the probability of a twister in Harris county still appears to be higher than Dallas + Tarrant counties.

Now, I'd be curious to see what changes when you throw Collin and Denton counties into the mix because all of these counties are interconnected and feel like a whole (i.e. the local news doesn't really segment by county).

That would probably give a better picture of what the tornado threat 'feels' like here, as opposed to what actually occurs on a county by county basis.

So what? When you add it up, Dallas and Tarrant have a little less tornadoes than Houston. That doesn't mean anything because there's no such thing as a stable weather pattern and I think last night says that, seeing as Houston was left untouched. Houston isn't really in tornado alley, but Dallas is, so tornadoes are not the weather southeast Texas really worries about. Mostly hurricanes and flooding, and hardly even that. Studies between 1950-1998 show that even Chicago and Atlanta are more prone to tornadoes than Harris County.

[Guerilla]

And Houston's tornadoes are not nearly as violent as the ones up there. We might get little F0's, with maybe some F1's. I also wonder how many of those tornadoes recorded were actually waterspouts, or occurred within the two or three hurricanes that hit the Houston area in that time.

[KewGee]

Harris County has has 33 F2s and 8 F3s in that time frame of 56 years.

It is listed that no funnel clouds or waterspouts were recorded. That seems weird, but I don't do the statistics.

Dallas County, 14 F2s, 7 F3s, and one F4.

Tarrant County, 15 F2s and 4 F3s.

Fulton County (Atlanta) has only had 21 tornadoes in 56 years and Wayne County (Detroit) has only had 29 tornadoes in 56 years.

Harris County leads the way in the counties we're comparing. But then again, as stated in a post above, so what?

[midnightbirdgirl]

Originally Posted by KewGee

You might think the weather here is far from boring in the Spring or any other time of the year when the violence in the skies happen. Personally, I hate it, but I can appreciate one being excited about something different.

I promise you will be bored to tears when summer gets here. For 5 months, every day is the same, hotter than heck, humid, hazy skies, bugs, ugly brown, plants and trees dying of thirst so it makes most people beg for Fall which is an eternity off when the May or before heat and humidity begin.

Actually, I am used to such summers. Except for the humidity, it is hotter than heck here, as I said and brown and tan is our color palette. Summer lasts well into October and winter into April. I have lived in MN and GA for awhile during summer months and it really did not bother me too much, as I am well aware of the state birds of the south.

MBG

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by midnightbirdgirl

Actually, I am used to such summers. Except for the humidity, it is hotter than heck here, as I said and brown and tan is our color palette. Summer lasts well into October and winter into April. I have lived in MN and GA for awhile during summer months and it really did not bother me too much, as I am well aware of the state birds of the south.

MBG

I wish you the best. I think you'll really like Texas. Spring, Winter, and Fall are quite delightful.