Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2000

F1 tornado, Buna, Texas, November 24, 2000

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Jasper County on November 24, 2000, touching down at 3:50 AM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $70,000 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 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
November 24, 2000
Touchdown
3:50 AM CST (09:50 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$70,000
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
30.430, -93.970
Lift-off point
30.430, -93.970
Record number
566

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado passed across the north end of Buna, blowning trees down in its path. A home on Highway 96 had its windows blown out. A mobile home on Fey Road was destroyed when a large tree fell on it, nearly severing it into two pieces. Another home on Fey Road, a two story permanent home, received major damage to its roof, siding, and interior. A truck at this home was smashed by a falling tree. On FM 1004, trees were blown down, and three storage buildings were destroyed.

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

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:35 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:35 UTC10:30 UTCTornado WarningLCH

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 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

9.8 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. November 24, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2000-11-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 123 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 701 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2000-11-24The 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 267 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
123 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
701 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
267 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
325 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.2 hours after it, 82 km from the path. November 24, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2000-11-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 356 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 610 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 2000-11-24The 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 260 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 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
356 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
296 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
610 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
260 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
291 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Beaumont - Port Arthur (BPT), 53 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
07:53 UTC6965170° 15 kt1006.1
08:53 UTC6966170° 15 kt1005.4
09:53 UTC6866220° 9 kt1006.4RA BR
10:03 UTC6866.2230° 5 kt1005.8+RA BR
10:11 UTC66.266.2270° 5 kt1006.1RA BR
10:18 UTC66.266.2330° 18 kt231007.1+RA BR
10:23 UTC60.860.8340° 13 kt231007.1+RA BR
10:28 UTC60.85930° 11 kt211007.5+RA BR
10:38 UTC5959350° 13 kt1007.1+RA BR
10:43 UTC5959340° 11 kt1007.1+RA BR
10:53 UTC5959350° 13 kt1006.4+RA BR
10:56 UTC5959350° 13 kt1006.8+RA BR
11:00 UTC5959360° 12 kt1006.4+RA BR
11:12 UTC5957.2360° 14 kt1006.1RA BR
11:22 UTC5957.210° 10 kt181006.4-RA

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 November 24, 2000

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 241:22 AM CSTF1Harris, TX1.0501$250,000
November 242:35 AM CSTF1Harris, TX1.0150$350,000
November 2410:40 AM CSTF0Mobile, AL0.2200$10,000

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.