Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2001
F0 tornado, Dayton, Texas, October 12, 2001
This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Liberty County on October 12, 2001, touching down at 4:52 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 12, 2001
- Touchdown
- 4:52 PM CDT (21:52 UTC)
- Path length
- 2.0 miles (3.2 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $40,000
- County
- Liberty County
- Touchdown point
- 30.080, -94.880
- Lift-off point
- 30.050, -94.880
- Record number
- 577
What the Weather Service recorded
Sheriff's office reported a tornado touched down near FM 686 and FM 321 and moved east toward Highway 90. Damage to a business and the roof of a trailer was reported, as well as trees and power lines down.
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 Houston/Galveston, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Oct 12, 2:30 PM CDT, 2 hours 22 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Oct 12, 2:30 PM CDT, 2 hours 22 minutes before
SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
230 PM CDT FRI OCT 12 2001
KHGX LIGHTING UP WITH CONVECTION IN THE LAST 15 MINUTES. THE MAIN
FORECAST ISSUES ARE SEVERE/HEAVY RAIN THREAT THROUGH SAT AM. THE 12Z
NCEP MODELS ARE IN POOR AGREEMENT...INCLUDING THE FWC/MAV GUIDANCE.
OVERALL PREFER THE ETA. WILL BLEND MAV/FWC FOR MOST PERIODS.
DESPITE SIGNIFICANT MODEL CHANGES...OLD FASHIONED TECHNIQUES SUCH AS
PRESSURE/HEIGHT FALLS SEEM TO SERVE THE FORECAST BEST. NO MAJOR
CHANGES OTHER THAN TO PUSH BACK TIMING OF THE SQUALL LINE TO 08-14Z
(3-9 AM) FOR MOST OF THE CWA. CONVECTION THIS AFTERNOON HAS THE
POTENTIAL FOR MINI-SUPERCELLS WITH ISOLD TORNADOES AND DAMAGING
WINDS AS OCCURRED ON THU. THE CHAMBERS COUNTY SHERIFF REPORTED A
FUNNEL CLOUD 7N OF WINNIE AT 155 PM.
OTHERWISE DAMAGING WINDS...LARGE HAIL...ISOLD TORNADOES...AND HEAVY
RAIN/FLOODING ARE ALL POSSIBLE WITH THE SQUALL LINE TONIGHT. WILL
RETAIN FFA/RIVER FLOOD WATCH AND SEVERE MENTION. MARINE FORECAST
WILL UPGRADE TO SCA FOR ALL WATERS AS THE LLJ AND INFLOW BOOT WINDS
TONIGHT.
.HGX...FFA ALL ZONES TONIGHT.
RIVER FA SAN JACINTO/SAN BERNARD/TRES PALACIOS BASINS.
SCA BAYS AND 0-60NM GULF WATERS.
31/47/WT
PRELIMS...
CLL EU 064/070 050/077 055 +40
IAH TU 072/075 052/076 054 +60
GLS TU 076/076 062/074 065 880In the hours before
Special weather statement, Oct 12, 3:25 PM CDT, 1 hour 27 minutes before
GMZ330-335-350-355-370-375-TXZ163-164-176>179-195>200-210>214-226-227 -235>238-131000- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX 325 PM CDT FRI OCT 12 2001 ...SIGNIFICANT SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK EXPECTED ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS TONIGHT AND EARLY SATURDAY... ...FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHEAST TEXAS TONIGHT... A VERY STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL IMPACT SOUTHEAST TEXAS TONIGHT AND SATURDAY. A COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP INTO NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS THIS EVENING. THE COMBINATION OF WINDS TURNING AND STRENGTHENING WITH HEIGHT IN THE ATMOSPHERE...A VERY UNSTABLE AIRMASS AT THE SURFACE...AND COLD TEMPERATURES ALOFT WILL LEAD TO A HIGH LIKELIHOOD OF SEVERE WEATHER LATE TONIGHT AND EARLY SATURDAY AS THE STORM SYSTEM APPROACHES SOUTHEAST TEXAS. DAMAGING WINDS... TORNADOES AND LARGE HAIL ARE ALL POSSIBLE. A LINE OF STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG THE FRONT. SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOP AHEAD OF THE LINE WILL ALSO BE A THREAT. THOUGH SEVERE WEATHER IS POSSIBLE VIRTUALLY ALL NIGHT THE MAIN THREAT APPEARS TO BE BETWEEN 11 PM AND 6 AM FOR THE COLLEGE STATION AREA AND WESTERN PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS...3 AM TO 9 AM FOR HOUSTON METRO AND CENTRAL PORTIONS...4 AM TO 10 AM FOR COASTAL AND EASTERN PORTIONS. VERY HEAVY RAINFALL IS ALSO EXPECTED WITH THE STORMS TONIGHT AND EARLY SATURDAY. RAINFALL AMOUNTS WILL AVERAGE 1 TO 3 INCHES WITH ISOLATED TOTALS OF 5 INCHES POSSIBLE BY LATE SATURDAY MORNING. FLOODING OF LOW LYING ROADS AND FEEDERS WILL PROBABLY BE THE MAIN PROBLEM. THOUGH MOST PRECIPITATION WILL BE BE OVER BY NOON SATURDAY...THE UPPER LOW PRESSURE AREA AND ASSOCIATED VERY COLD TEMPERATURES WILL MOVE OVERHEAD DURING THE AFTERNOON HOURS. RESIDUAL MOISTURE MAY CAUSE SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS TO DEVELOP THAT WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL PRODUCE LARGE HAIL. THOUGH IT IS A FAIRLY LOW PROBABILITY...PORTIONS ALONG AND EAST OF I-45 WILL SEE THE BETTER CHANCES OF THIS HAPPENING. SINCE MANY OF THE STORMS WILL OCCUR WHEN PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING...IT WOULD BE WISE TO MAKE SURE YOUR WEATHER RADIO IS TURNED ON SO YOU WILL HEAR ANY WARNINGS THAT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ISSUES FOR YOUR AREA. THIS INFORMATION CAN ALSO BE OBTAINED FROM YOUR FAVORITE MEDIA OUTLET. REMEMBER...THE BEST PLACE TO BE IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM OR TORNADO IS INSIDE A REINFORCED STRUCTURE AWAY FROM WINDOWS.
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
9.9 hours before the tornado, 162 km from the path. October 12, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 534 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -35 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 167 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 474 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 86 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 135 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.0 K/km
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z
2.1 hours after it, 162 km from the path. October 13, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2537 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3861 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 640 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 70 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 102 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 6.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
The surface observations
Houston Intercontinental (IAH), 47 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Houston radar (KHGX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:50 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 12, 2001
16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 12 | 3:00 PM CDT | F0 | Hardin, TX | 2.5 | 10 | |||
| October 12 | 3:40 PM CDT | F0 | Hardin, TX | 0.5 | 10 | $2,000 | ||
| October 12 | 4:05 PM CDT | F0 | Jasper, TX | 0.5 | 10 | |||
| October 12 | 7:50 PM CDT | F2 | Wise, TX | 2.5 | 440 | 1 | $200,000 | |
| October 12 | 8:00 PM CDT | F2 | Wise, TX | 9.0 | 590 | 1 | $750,000 | |
| October 12 | 8:54 PM CDT | F1 | Bosque, TX | 1.5 | 75 | $30,000 | ||
| October 12 | 8:58 PM CDT | F2 | McLennan, TX | 4.2 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| October 12 | 9:00 PM CDT | F0 | Bosque, TX | 2.0 | 50 | |||
| October 12 | 9:20 PM CDT | F1 | Denton, TX | 0.1 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| October 12 | 9:30 PM CDT | F3 | Gillespie, TX | 2.5 | 400 | 5 | $1.0 million | |
| October 12 | 9:40 PM CDT | F0 | Uvalde, TX | 0.5 | 100 | $30,000 | ||
| October 12 | 9:57 PM CDT | F2 | McLennan, TX | 6.2 | 150 | $500,000 | ||
| October 12 | 10:15 PM CDT | F1 | Hill, TX | 0.7 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| October 12 | 10:30 PM CDT | F1 | Medina, TX | 3.0 | 200 | $200,000 | ||
| October 12 | 10:40 PM CDT | F2 | Medina, TX | 1.2 | 500 | 25 | $20 million | |
| October 12 | 12:50 AM CDT | F1 | Brazos, TX | 1.0 | 50 | $60,000 |
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.