Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2001

F0 tornado, Judson, Texas, December 16, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 1.4 miles across Gregg County on December 16, 2001, touching down at 5:32 PM CST and reaching 25 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
December 16, 2001
Touchdown
5:32 PM CST (23:32 UTC)
Path length
1.4 miles (2.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Gregg County
Touchdown point
32.620, -94.780
Lift-off point
32.620, -94.770
Record number
555

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado developed along a squall line and moved rapidly north northeast. Damage was confined to tree limbs and brush and occurred away from any buildings or structures.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:21 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:21 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningSHV
00:01 UTC04:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningSHV

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 19:59 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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 97 km from the path. December 16, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2001-12-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -113, lifted condensation level 425 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2001-12-16The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-113 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
425 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 97 km from the path. December 17, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2001-12-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 875 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 500 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2001-12-17The 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 243 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
875 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
879 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
500 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
295 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
6.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Longview/Gregg Co. (GGG), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC63610° 0 kt1007.8
22:53 UTC7268160° 12 kt1007.1
23:15 UTC71.668150° 15 kt1006.4VCTS -RA
23:23 UTC71.668160° 14 kt241006.4-RA
23:53 UTC7268160° 13 kt1006.4
00:03 UTC71.668160° 13 kt1006.8VCTS -RA
00:19 UTC71.669.8180° 13 kt1006.8TSRA
00:33 UTC6866.2240° 9 kt1007.1RA BR
00:39 UTC69.866.2210° 13 kt211007.1VCTS +RA BR
00:53 UTC6967230° 15 kt271007.1TSRA BR
01:02 UTC69.866.2220° 12 kt1007.8+TSRA BR
01:19 UTC6866.2200° 20 kt261007.1+RA BR
01:29 UTC66.266.2210° 15 kt261007.1-RA BR

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 16, 2001

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 165:29 PM CSTF2San Jacinto, TX3.02002$2.5 million
December 167:44 PM CSTF0Montgomery, TX0.170$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.