Tornado touches down in San Antonio during morning commute

Morning commuters got a surprise Thursday after a tornado touched down on San Antonio’s East Side, according to meteorologists and social media posts.

The weak tornado was sighted near Joint Base San Antonio-Sam Houston at around 8 a.m., the military installation confirmed on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Joint Base San Antonio weather has confirmed a brief, very weak tornado touched down on JBSA-Fort Sam Houston around 8 a.m this morning,” the base tweeted via is official account. “There are no reported injuries, but downed trees and some damage to vehicles have been reported.”

Joint Base San Antonio weather has confirmed a brief, very weak tornado touched down on JBSA-Fort Sam Houston around 8 a.m. this morning. There are no reported injuries, but downed trees and some damage to vehicles have been reported.

— JointBaseSanAntonio (@JBSA_Official) October 26, 2023

The tornado sighting was also confirmed by KSAT and also by Fox San Antonio meteorologist Brad Sowder, who tweeted that there were reports of damage in Terrell Hills.

San Antonio tornado this morning. Damage in Terrell Hills. pic.twitter.com/HachkcVEPy

— Brad Sowder (@TheBradSowder) October 26, 2023

Commuters posted videos on X of the tornado, which appears to have touched down near the intersection of I-35 and U.S. Highway 281 and traveled north toward Brackenridge Park, according to KSAT meteorologist Justin Horne.

8:15am 10/25/23: Just received this video from I-35 near 281. Possible, very brief tornado in San Antonio. @NWSSanAntonio pic.twitter.com/X2acQvZ3pT

— Justin Horne (@Justin_Horne) October 26, 2023

X user @logan_wx_ posted a video of a time lapse of Thursday morning’s surprise weather phenomenon.

4x speed timelapse of funnel cloud/tornado this morning in San Antonio.#wxtwitter #txwx pic.twitter.com/zC89p5sip0

— logan (@logan_wx_) October 26, 2023

Although damage is being reported near Brackenridge Park, the San Antonio Zoo let the community know that no creatures in its care were harmed.

“Let the community and zoo lovers know that all the animals and staff are safe and secure and that we did not suffer any damage,” zoo officials tweeted.

This morning a tornado was seen on live TV over the San Antonio Zoo area. We want to let the community and zoo lovers know that all the animals and staff are safe and secure and that we did not suffer any damage. pic.twitter.com/Z0A0YJeC4W

— San Antonio Zoological Society 🦍 (@SanAntonioZoo) October 26, 2023

Despite the eye witness accounts and video evidence, the National Weather Service (NWS) has not yet confirmed whether a tornado touched down in San Antonio or where the phenomenon ranked on the Fujita scale — if at all.

NWS did report that parts of San Antonio got about 1/10th of an inch of rain as of 7 a.m. However, those measurements are subject to change as precipitation continues through the morning.

Estimated rainfall amounts just through 7am this morning are shown below. Measured amounts in excess of 7.5″ were reported in western Llano County. Full rundown of rainfall measurements through early this morning are here: https://t.co/Xmmzfmub3s pic.twitter.com/WS5EPwrU6d

— NWS Austin/San Antonio (@NWSSanAntonio) October 26, 2023

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