Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2001

F0 tornado, Floydada, Texas, June 5, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Floyd County on June 5, 2001, touching down at 8:15 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
June 5, 2001
Touchdown
8:15 PM CDT (01:15 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Floyd County
Touchdown point
33.980, -101.420
Lift-off point
33.980, -101.420
Record number
988

What the Weather Service recorded

A (landspout) tornado was reported by a storm chaser over open country. The tornado remained nearly stationary.

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

The warnings

29 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:46 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:00 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
23:24 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningLUB
00:14 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningLUB
00:46 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningLUB
01:30 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB

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 01:12 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. June 6, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2001-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 407 joules per kilogram, CIN -120, lifted condensation level 2039 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2001-06-06The 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 55 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
407 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-120 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1245 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2039 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

10.7 hours after it, 141 km from the path. June 6, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2001-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 884 joules per kilogram, CIN -255, lifted condensation level 1145 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2001-06-06The 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 259 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
884 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-255 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1211 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1145 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
259 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
375 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:13 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 2001 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 5, 2001

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 54:14 PM CDTF0Briscoe, TX0.240
June 55:32 PM EDTF0Marion, FL0.110$30,000
June 55:30 PM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.530$40,000
June 56:19 PM CDTF0Harper, KS1.0110
June 56:35 PM CDTF0Motley, TX0.250
June 56:35 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.250
June 56:38 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.250
June 56:50 PM CDTF1Floyd, TX0.375$80,000
June 57:09 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.250
June 57:28 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS1.0110
June 57:30 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS1.0110
June 57:34 PM CDTF0Woodward, OK0.125
June 57:39 PM CDTF0Harvey, KS1.5220$50,000
June 59:02 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS1.0110
June 59:10 PM CDTF0Butler, KS1.0110
June 59:24 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS1.0110

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.