260,000 without power in Texas as severe thunderstorms sweep Houston area
In addition to torrential rains and skies full of lightning, wind gusts reached 45-60 mph across the Houston metro area, with a gust of 59 mph measured in Downtown Houston and a 64 mph gust in Hempstead, according to the National Weather Service.
Severe weather targets Texas, Gulf Coast states
Over 250,000 customers lost power Saturday morning as severe weather swept through Houston and southeastern Texas, with more strong thunderstorms and flooding possible through the day.
HOUSTON -- The weekend got off to a rocky start in parts of southeastern Texas as a line of severe thunderstorms swept through early Saturday morning, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers.
In addition to torrential rains and skies full of lightning, wind gusts reached 45-60 mph across the Houston metro area, with a gust of 59 mph measured in Downtown Houston and a 64 mph gust in Hempstead, according to the National Weather Service.
Warning boxes are color coded as: Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in yellow, Tornado Warnings in red, Tornado Warnings with confirmed tornado in purple, Flash Flood Warnings in green, and Flash Flood Emergencies in pink.
(FOX Weather)
About 260,000 were without power as dawn broke on Saturday across southeastern Texas, according to PowerOutage.com, with over 150,000 of those outages in the Houston area.
Earlier in the night, severe thunderstorms blasted the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area with gusts as high as 67 mph in the Fort Worth area.
Tree damage in Fort Worth, Texas on Oct. 25, 2025.
(@JustinWHill / X)
Radar indicated a possible tornado south of Fort Worth on Friday evening. The NWS Dallas office will send a storm survey team to investigate whether a tornado touched down.
There are no initial reports of damage or injuries yet.
It was just the next wave of severe weather that also rolled through the Metroplex Friday morning as well. A wave of thunderstorms brought hundreds of lightning strikes to Dallas and its northern suburbs.
Local fire departments reported six houses caught fire in the predawn hours Friday in Dallas and Denton County as the storms rolled through.
Dallas Metroplex Radar loop on morning of Oct. 24, 2025.
(FOX Weather)
While the causes of the fires were still under investigation, fire officials did confirm lightning as the cause of some of the fires.
Overall through the day, storms dropped 3.10 inches of rain at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, setting a daily rainfall record and notching its third-wettest October day in 25 years.
Flood Watches remain posted through Saturday
Lingering storms and heavy rains were set to plague the area through Saturday. Flood Watches covered much of eastern Texas, including the Houston area, for widespread rainfall totals of 2-4 inches, with isolated higher amounts up to 4-6 inches.
Heavy rains soak a Houston interstate on Oct. 25, 2025.
(FOX 26 Houston)
"Rainfall rates in the strongest storms could exceed 2-3" per hour, which could lead to flash flooding if these rainfall rates occur for a prolonged period of time," NWS forecasters in Houston said.
(FOX Weather)
Severe weather is a lingering concern throughout the day as a second round of severe weather energizes later Saturday. A level 2 out of 5 severe weather risk extends from southeastern Texas across southern Louisiana, including Houston, Austin and New Orleans.
Damaging wind gusts and tornadoes are possible in this area, along with large hail -- especially large hail potential in Houston and Austin of larger than golf ball size.
The severe weather threat ends in Texas by late Saturday evening, but persists into Saturday night across Louisiana. The line of severe weather will move farther east into the Gulf Coast states on Sunday.