Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2000

F0 tornado, Sonora, Texas, October 28, 2000

This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Sutton County on October 28, 2000, touching down at 7:03 PM 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
October 28, 2000
Touchdown
7:03 PM CDT (00:03 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sutton County
Touchdown point
30.300, -100.630
Lift-off point
30.270, -100.630
Record number
1063

What the Weather Service recorded

An area of thunderstorms developed along a cold front moving through the southeast sections of West Central Texas. A supercell developed in southern Sutton County, producing two tornadoes, but little damage. The front then stalled overnight, with thunderstorms training across parts of the Northwest Hill Country and Heartland. Three to five inches of rain was common, causing flooding and road closures.

A storm spotter tracked a tornado for 7 minutes in extreme southern Sutton County, remaining south of Interstate 10. Damage was light.

A tornado briefly touched down in extreme southeast Sutton County, toppling a few trees and causing minor structural damage.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:57 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:35 UTC19:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
23:36 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningSJT
23:57 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningSJT
03:15 UTC06:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningSJT

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.

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

0.1 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. October 29, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-10-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1364 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 946 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-10-29The 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 61 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
1364 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1446 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
946 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
274 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.9 hours after it, 104 km from the path. October 29, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-10-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 210 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 651 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2000-10-29The 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 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
210 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
251 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
651 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
2.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Junction - Kimble County (JCT), 87 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:51 UTC7562150° 14 kt201014.6
23:51 UTC7462140° 10 kt1014.2
00:51 UTC7462 3 kt1015.6-RA
01:37 UTC6866.2240° 16 kt201017.3+RA BR
01:54 UTC66.262.6120° 18 kt221016.6RA BR

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 October 28, 2000

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 281:20 PM CDTF1Gove, KS2.070
October 281:30 PM CDTF1Gove, KS1.070
October 281:56 PM CDTF0Sheridan, KS1.050
October 284:12 PM CDTF0Trego, KS0.470
October 284:32 PM CDTF0Graham, KS0.750
October 284:50 PM CDTF0Graham, KS0.550
October 285:51 PM CDTF0Norton, KS0.550
October 287:25 PM CDTF0Sutton, TX0.120$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.