Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2000

F0 tornado, Lacoste to San Antonio, Texas, May 19, 2000

From Lacoste to San Antonio, this F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Medina and Bexar counties on May 19, 2000, touching down at 7:40 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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
May 19, 2000
Touchdown
7:40 PM CDT (00:40 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
Counties
Medina and Bexar counties
Touchdown point
29.320, -98.820
Lift-off point
29.370, -98.730
Record number
791

What the Weather Service recorded

Members of the LaCoste police and fire departments reported seeing a wall cloud in the thunderstorm that approached the town from the west. As they watched, a small funnel appeared and began to dip downward. Trees in the way prevented their confirming a touchdown, but a later NWS survey indicated tornado damage as trees were blown down and crops were damaged from extreme eastern Medina County near LaCoste into extreme western Bexar County near Macdonna.

The small and brief tornado mentioned above in Medina County continued to knock over trees with damage to some power lines as it crossed the Bexar County line near Macdonna.

A very small and short-lived tornado was observed by officers from the Department of Public Safety in an open area just south of Devine. It caused no known damage.

A small tornado was observed by the public as it touched down in a residential area near the intersection of Zarzamora and US90. The tornado missed homes in the area, but destroyed around 20 trees.

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

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:33 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:33 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningEWX
01:11 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningEWX

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 19:30 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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

0.7 hours before the tornado, 200 km from the path. May 20, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-05-20Temperature 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 -72011, lifted condensation level 620 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-05-20The 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 171 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-72011 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
171 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
379 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
6.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z

11.3 hours after it, 200 km from the path. May 20, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-05-20Temperature 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 -63745, lifted condensation level 717 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-05-20The 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 -26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-63745 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
717 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
64 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Kelly Afb (SKF), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:55 UTC73.469.860° 6 kt1013.5-RA
23:05 UTC73.469.860° 6 kt1013.2TS
23:25 UTC75.273.450° 6 kt1012.9
23:35 UTC7775.260° 6 kt1012.9TS
23:55 UTC7775.260° 7 kt1012.5-TSRA
00:45 UTC73.471.640° 10 kt1012.9TS
00:55 UTC71.669.840° 11 kt1012.9TS
00:58 UTC71.669.840° 10 kt1013.2-TSRA
01:15 UTC71.671.630° 10 kt1013.9-TSRA

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

The radar

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:40 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

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 May 19, 2000

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 192:34 PM EDTF1Greene, VA11.050$3,000
May 194:35 PM EDTF0Hanover, VA0.350
May 198:05 PM CDTF1Wilson, TX0.5100$80,000
May 198:35 PM CDTF0Medina, TX0.250
May 198:50 PM CDTF0Bexar, TX0.2100$40,000
May 198:55 PM CDTF0Liberty, TX1.050$30,000

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.