TEXAS ROCKED BY POWERFUL OCTOBER DERECHO

Storm watchers across Texas this week witnessed a powerful sequence of thunderstorms hammer the state from Thursday through Saturday, riding an unusually potent autumn front that produced the type of widespread, long-lived windstorm listeners might recognize as a derecho. Baldi and Chief David Rhymer of Texas Stormchasers explained how a slow-moving storm system swept in and triggered not only flash flooding but also bursts of destructive winds and hail, especially for listeners in the Panhandle, West Texas, and northwest Texas on Thursday, before shifting rapidly east and south into the DFW Metroplex, Austin, and San Antonio by Friday.

The National Weather Service, working with the Storm Prediction Center, outlined that wind gusts approached and in some areas exceeded 60 mph, while hail reached up to golf-ball size. While tornado threats remained low, the nearly continuous gust fronts, squall lines, and outflows—spread out over hundreds of miles—matched the classic setup for a derecho: damaging, non-tornadic winds along a bowing thunderstorm line. By Saturday, those storms rammed into East and Southeast Texas, including Houston, as flooding risks peaked. Two to five inches of rain fell across central and eastern Texas in less than 48 hours, leading to flash flood emergencies in normally dry riverbeds and streams. Texas Stormchasers pointed out that the ground was so parched before the event that it absorbed much of the initial rainfall, but with continued downpours some highways, rural roads, and low-lying neighborhoods quickly flooded, stranding vehicles and prompting dozens of high-water rescues. Local officials in northeast Texas and South Central Texas reported that damage assessments are underway as some communities experienced power outages from downed lines and widespread tree damage—typical after a windstorm of this magnitude.

Climate Central reports that this episode is part of a busy and destructive 2025, with now 14 billion-dollar weather disasters since January. This particular event may well become the next entry in their database given the insurance claims and infrastructure impacts already seen across the region. Local meteorologists are calling the storm “one of the most photogenic and dangerous fall wind events in recent years for Texas,” with vivid lightning displays and dramatic shelf clouds trailing out behind the gust fronts.

Texas listeners saw the worst conditions where thunderstorm bands repeatedly trained over the same area, a pattern meteorologists say increases both flash flood risk and the potential for straight-line wind damage as the atmosphere’s energy is spent over a concentrated zone. Live radar imagery showed the cold front slicing across the state, with severe thunderstorm warnings issued from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast through Saturday afternoon.

For those impacted by this week’s storms, authorities recommend staying alert as downed trees and damage to weak structures may remain a hazard, along with residual flooding in southeastern counties heading into the weekend. Emergency managers urge listeners to keep monitoring local bulletins and use weather apps for any new warnings, as recovery efforts shift from response to repair.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode featuring the October Texas derecho. Be sure to come back next week for more on America’s biggest weather events. This has been a Quiet Please production, and for more, check out Quiet Please Dot A I.

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