F3 tornado, Caldwell, Texas, March 10, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F3

Date

March 10, 2000

Touchdown

7:55 PM CST (01:55 UTC)

Path length

21.0 miles (33.8 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Burleson County

Touchdown point

30.420, -96.680

Lift-off point

30.400, -96.350

Record number

670

Tornado touched down near Harmony at 1955 CST with significant tree damage including an 18 inch diameter tree blown down. A trailer was also significantly damaged. Tornado then tracked to just south of Center Line with mostly F0 tree damage along its path. Tornado then reached the Pin Oak subdivision at about 2022 CST. Several trailers, including a double-wide, were destroyed. A total of 7 homes were destroyed and another 10 severely damaged in this area, with damage reaching F2 status. Tornado then struck a ranch on the south side of FM 1361 with large trees uprooted or cut in half and windows blown out and portion of roof torn off large frame house. Several rural outbuildings at the ranch which had been bolted down were destroyed. Damage in this area was rated F3 with damage swath up to a half mile wide. Tornado then tracked to just north of Clay by 2051 CST with a narrow swath of F0 to F1 tree damage along the path. When tornado passed north of Clay before dissipating, car was blown off road and damage swath reached 200 yards wide.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:45 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:49 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 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.

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

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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