Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2001

F0 tornado, Saratoga, Texas, October 11, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Hardin County on October 11, 2001, touching down at 10:30 AM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 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 11, 2001
Touchdown
10:30 AM CDT (15:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Hardin County
Touchdown point
30.180, -94.520
Lift-off point
30.200, -94.520
Record number
478

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado passed across Highway 105 between Batosn and Sour Lake, resulting in trees and power lines blown down, and minor roof damage to a few homes and barns in the area.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Lake Charles, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Oct 11, 9:36 AM CDT, 54 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 11, 9:36 AM CDT, 54 minutes before
SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA AND SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
936 AM CDT THU OCT 11 2001

.THIS AFTERNOON...
SEVERE WEATHER MAY BE A PROBLEM TODAY. A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT
FOR SOUTHEAST TEXAS UNTIL 1 PM CDT.

.MORNING SOUNDING...
A QUICK PERUSAL REVEALS AN UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT. I MODIFIED THE
SOUNDING USING THE FORECAST MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 82 DEG F. LIFTING
THE SURFACE PARCEL...THE ALGORITHM COMPUTES CAPES NEAR 3000 J PER
KG...BOUNDED BELOW BY THE LFC (1.7 KFT) AND ABOVE BY EQUILIBRIUM
LEVEL (48.5 KFT).

MARGINAL HAIL THREAT...THE FREEZING LEVEL IS RATHER HIGH AT 14.0 KFT.
THE PARCEL FREEZING LEVEL IS EVEN HIGHER AT 17.5 KFT. SUPERCOOLED
LIQUID WATER WILL EXIST OVER A 3.5 KFT LAYER. ALSO...MINOR COLD AIR
ADVECTION IS NOTED AT MID TROPOSPHERE (AROUND 700 MB).

LOOKING AT PRECIPITABLE WATER (PW)...I COMPUTE ANOTHER STABILITY
MEASURE. USING THE SOLOT METHOD...I COMPUTE PW FOR THE SURFACE-700 MB
LAYER AT 1.4 INCHES. THE TOTAL PW IS 2.0 INCHES. THE PW DEFICIT IS
0.6 INCHES...MOST OF THE WATER (IN THE FORM OF VAPOR) IS IN THE
LOWEST LAYERS.

OTHER INDICES WORTH NOTING...THE K-INDEX IS 41 (SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS). THE TOTAL-TOTALS IS 52 (FEW SEVERE STORMS). THE
SWEAT INDEX IS 400 (A FEW TORNADIC STORMS POSSIBLE).

FINAL NOTE...THE ALGORITHM COMPUTES STORM MOTION AT 240 DEG AT 15 KT.
THIS IS THE SHEAR WISE MOTION. SEVERE WEATHER WILL LIKELY FOLLOW
CROSS SHEAR MOTION. THE MOTION OF THE SLOWER RIGHT MOVER IS 150 DEG
...WHILE THE MOTION OF THE FASTER LEFT MOVER IS 330 DEG.

.PREVAILING NUMBERS...
AEX 78/69/80/64/69/45 875830
BPT 81/72/82/67/70/51 764830
LCH 82/72/82/68/70/50 765840
LFT 80/72/82/69/70/50 776750

.LCH...NONE.

TRARES

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), 12:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. October 11, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2001-10-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1805 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 496 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 12:00Z on 2001-10-11The 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 36 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
1805 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2126 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
496 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
5.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Beaumont - Port Arthur (BPT), 54 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:32 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 October 11, 2001

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 117:05 AM CDTF2Harris, TX3.5100$3.8 million
October 118:45 AM CDTF0Harris, TX0.225
October 1111:10 AM CDTF0Vernon Parish, LA0.510$10,000
October 111:25 PM CDTF0Warren, LA to MS0.730$10,000
October 113:10 PM CDTF0Yazoo, MS0.530$1,000
October 114:00 PM CDTF0Attala, MS1.040$1,000
October 114:01 PM CDTF0Livingston Parish, LA0.210$10,000
October 116:35 PM CDTF1Plaquemines Parish, LA0.530$40,000

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.