Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2002

F0 tornado, Everman to Ft Worth, Texas, April 16, 2002

From Everman to Ft Worth, this F0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Tarrant County on April 16, 2002, touching down at 5:52 PM CDT and reaching 70 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
April 16, 2002
Touchdown
5:52 PM CDT (22:52 UTC)
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
70 yards (64 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Tarrant County
Touchdown point
32.750, -97.350
Lift-off point
32.750, -97.350
Record number
526

What the Weather Service recorded

The first tornado developed near the intersection of Noble Road and Hansbarger Road and moved northeast. Damage to fences carports and trees occurred. The tornado moved northeast into the Bonaventure Mobile Home Park, partially unroofing one mobile home, with minor damage to others. The tornado dissipated along Lon Stephenson Road and east of Forest Hill Drive.

The second tornado developed in southeast Ft Worth near the intersection of Anglin Drive and southeast Loop 820, moved northeast and dissipated between Melinda Road and the old Mansfield Highway. Damage was confined to uprooted trees and minor roof damage.

The third tornado developed in southeast Fort Worth along Redwood Boulevard north of Collett Little Road, moved northeast across Loop 820 near Sun Valley Drive and dissipated north of Laster Road.Damage was confined to trees and mobile homes.

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

The warnings

21 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:31 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:30 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
22:31 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningFWD
22:56 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningFWD
23:30 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 22:44 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 11 km from the path. April 16, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-04-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1027 joules per kilogram, CIN -236, lifted condensation level 707 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-04-16The 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 19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 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
1027 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-236 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1393 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
707 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 11 km from the path. April 17, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-04-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 165 joules per kilogram, CIN -194, lifted condensation level 1686 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-04-17The 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 83 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 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
165 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-194 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1373 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1686 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:52 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 2002 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 16, 2002

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 165:42 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX1.6100$10,000
April 165:49 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX0.650$2,000
April 165:59 PM CDTF3Tarrant, TX2.180$250,000
April 166:56 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX1.170
April 167:07 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX0.540
April 167:11 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX1.0100
April 167:14 PM CDTF0Johnson, TX1.040
April 167:31 PM CDTF1Ellis, TX2.3200$10,000
April 167:50 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.475$3,000
April 168:01 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.270$10,000
April 168:18 PM CDTF1Atoka, OK3.0100$30,000
April 168:25 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.460
April 169:15 PM CDTF0Pushmataha, OK0.325

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.