Houston storm history · July 8, 2024

Hurricane Beryl

A Category 1 hurricane whose biggest impact on Houston was wind: fallen trees and power lines, and days-long outages during summer heat.

Every bayou, hour by hour

0 ft 14 ft 27.4 ft (this storm's peak) no reading Every cell is a real archived USGS reading for that bayou, that hour — nothing is interpolated between gauges. Color scale is calibrated to this storm alone; it is not comparable across different storms. Hover a cell for the exact value.

Beryl made landfall near Matagorda at about 4 a.m. on Monday, July 8, 2024, as a Category 1 hurricane. It moved north and passed almost directly over the Houston area that morning, with wind gusts of 80 miles an hour and higher in some places.

Most of Houston's damage came from wind rather than water. Thousands of trees fell onto homes, streets and power lines. About two million CenterPoint Energy customers lost power at the peak, and many went without electricity for a week or longer in the middle of July heat. The long outages, the heat that followed, and generator accidents drove much of the storm's toll. Dozens of deaths across Texas were linked to Beryl.

There was flooding. Heavy rain bands passed over the region during the morning of July 8, flooding streets and underpasses, and several bayous rose quickly. But Beryl moved fast, and the rain did not pile up the way it does in slow storms like Harvey or Imelda. The rises you see in the replay are real, but they fell back sooner.

Beryl is on this map as a contrast. A hurricane's category and track matter most for wind and power. A storm's speed and rainfall rate matter most for flooding. Preparing for Beryl meant securing trees, having a way to stay cool, planning for medical needs without power, and running generators safely outdoors, as much as it meant watching the bayous.

After the storm, the long outages led to public hearings, new state laws and utility commitments on vegetation management, backup power and better outage communication.

Sources

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