Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2000

F0 tornado, South Bend to Bunger, Texas, April 30, 2000

From South Bend to Bunger, this F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Young County on April 30, 2000, touching down at 7:31 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
April 30, 2000
Touchdown
7:31 PM CDT (00:31 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Young County
Touchdown point
33.020, -98.650
Lift-off point
33.020, -98.650
Record number
759

What the Weather Service recorded

April 30, 2000 - Event NarrativeA big day for severe weather across northwest portions of the area. Several outflow boundaries, a dryline, and moist unstable air all helped contribute to thunderstorm development. There were several rounds of thunderstorms, the first wave was in the early morning hours, from about 3 am to 5 am. This activity developed in Young and Palo Pinto counties and moved eastward to affect Parker, Jack, Wise and Tarrant counties. Another event developed in the early evening, generally north and west of a Dallas, Glen Rose, Eastland line. Most of the activity was centered on Young, Jack, and Stephens county. A large tornado occurred near Olney (Young County) during this event. A continuation of aa tornado that began in Throckmorton county.

A brief touchdown was reported by storm chasers.

A brief touchdown was reported by chasers.

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

The warnings

16 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:15 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:36 UTC07:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
11:13 UTC12:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
22:16 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningFWD
22:52 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningFWD
23:27 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningFWD
00:15 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningFWD
00:35 UTC03:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
00:46 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD

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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:19 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

0.5 hours before the tornado, 129 km from the path. May 1, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-05-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2110 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 844 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-05-01The 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 307 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2110 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3905 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
844 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
307 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
394 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.9
Supercell composite
30.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 129 km from the path. May 1, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-05-01Temperature 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 -76197, lifted condensation level 725 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-05-01The 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 131 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
-76197 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
725 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mineral Wells Municipal (MWL), 61 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:50 UTC80.668140° 16 kt27
23:50 UTC80.668140° 17 kt251007.5
00:54 UTC78.866.2140° 15 kt231007.8
01:50 UTC78.866.2140° 11 kt221009.5TS

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 30, 2000

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 302:20 PM CDTF0Motley, TX0.130
April 303:07 PM CDTF0Cottle, TX0.130
April 304:01 PM CDTF0Foard, TX0.250
April 304:20 PM CDTF0Foard, TX3.050
April 304:27 PM CDTF0Foard, TX2.050
April 305:09 PM CDTF1Throckmorton, TX4.0500$50,000
April 305:25 PM CDTF1Throckmorton, TX2.0500$200,000
April 305:30 PM CDTF1Wilbarger, TX2.070$50,000
April 305:40 PM CDTF3Young, TX13.0800$300,000
April 305:40 PM CDTF0Young, TX0.220
April 306:50 PM CDTF0Young, TX0.110
April 307:40 PM CDTF0Young, TX0.210
April 307:46 PM CDTF0Jack, TX0.210

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.