Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1995

F0 tornado, Montgomery County, Texas, December 18, 1995

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Montgomery County on December 18, 1995, touching down at 5:30 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
December 18, 1995
Touchdown
5:30 AM CST (11:30 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Montgomery County
Touchdown point
30.100, -95.230
Record number
1230

What the Weather Service recorded

Precinct 4 office reported tornado damaging 24 houses, uprooted trees, tore roofs off and broke windows. Damage occurred in east portion of Porter Texas.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:12 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:46 UTC12:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningHGX
10:46 UTC12:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningHGX
11:12 UTC12:15 UTCTornado WarningHGX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:46 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 195 km from the path. December 18, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1995-12-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -2920, lifted condensation level 648 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1995-12-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2920 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
648 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
300 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 195 km from the path. December 18, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1995-12-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 454 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 538 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1995-12-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 336 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
454 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
538 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
336 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
394 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Houston Intercontinental (IAH), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
10:00 UTC646370° 6 kt1002.7-SHRA FG
11:00 UTC676690° 6 kt1001-SHRA FG
11:17 UTC130° 8 kt1001
11:23 UTC350° 25 kt331002.4
11:30 UTC10° 15 kt331002.7
12:00 UTC636320° 10 kt151001.4TSRA FG
13:00 UTC6362320° 11 kt1003-TSRA
13:02 UTC350° 10 kt1005.1

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 18, 1995

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 188:05 AM CSTF0Sabine, TX to LA0.230
December 181:15 PM CSTF1Saint Tammany Parish, LA0.510$500 to $5,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.