Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2000

F0 tornado, Hebbronville, Texas, May 2, 2000

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jim Hogg County on May 2, 2000, touching down at 10:15 AM CDT and reaching 20 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
May 2, 2000
Touchdown
10:15 AM CDT (15:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jim Hogg County
Touchdown point
27.220, -98.580
Lift-off point
27.220, -98.580
Record number
256

What the Weather Service recorded

Border Patrol saw the twister from highway 1017. The tornado briefly touched down and tore up some fence, trees and it destroyed a barn. The tornado damage was located about 5 miles south of Highway 285.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:47 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBRO
02:17 UTC02:45 UTCTornado WarningBRO
11:45 UTC12:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBRO
16:27 UTC17:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBRO

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 12:50 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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

3.3 hours before the tornado, 135 km from the path. May 2, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1319 joules per kilogram, CIN -69, lifted condensation level 948 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-05-02The 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 -38 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
1319 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-69 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2913 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
948 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-38 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-34 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

8.7 hours after it, 135 km from the path. May 3, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 541 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 650 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-05-03The 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 141 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 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
541 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
766 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
650 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
184 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:17 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 2, 2000

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 23:30 AM CDTF0Brazoria, TX1.050$30,000
May 27:49 PM CDTF0Cameron, TX0.120

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.