F3 tornado, Stonewall, Texas, October 12, 2001

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F3

Date

October 12, 2001

Touchdown

9:30 PM CDT (02:30 UTC)

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

5

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Gillespie County

Touchdown point

30.250, -98.670

Lift-off point

30.270, -98.650

Record number

458

The strongest of the Friday night tornadoes struck the town of Stonewall. This tornado, rated F3 on the Fujita Scale, was preceded by brief gusty winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour, very heavy rainfall and spotty .5-inch hail. The tornado formed around 830 pm CST near the intersection of Hahn Road and SH290. It moved north-northeastward for .75 miles, crossing SH290 and the Pedernales River. Just north of the river, it made a slight turn toward the east, now moving another mile toward the northeast. It crossed North River Road and continued over open country until it crossed Ranch Road 1623. After passing RR1623 for approximately .25 miles, it dissipated. The worst damage, F3 level, was to trees and homes between RR1623 and SH290, across the northwest and north central part of Stonewall. Ninety homes sustained damage with 6 destroyed. In addition, 7 mobile homes were destroyed and 20 damaged. Damage was also reported to 22 buildings. A two-story home had the entire second story destroyed, and a concrete building lost most of its walls and all of its roof. Other damage along the path typically included destroyed and damaged roofs and walls of homes and businesses as well as widespread damage to trees. The tornado path was approximately .25 miles in width and 2.5 miles in length. Although the tornado was not seen due to the late hour and darkness, residents did report that after heavy rain and hail, the wind became calm, and it was followed by a "roaring sound" so often reported in tornadoes. Five persons were injured with one man hospitalized as a result of the tornado.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:57 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 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.

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:39 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.

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

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.