F1 tornado, Texas City, Texas, December 30, 2002

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

December 30, 2002

Touchdown

9:20 PM CST (03:20 UTC)

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$70,000

County

Galveston County

Touchdown point

29.400, -94.900

Lift-off point

29.400, -94.900

Record number

632

Exactly one week after the December 23rd outbreak, Southeast Texas received another round of severe weather as the next storm system moved out of the southwestern U.S. toward Texas. This event only lasted three hours (compared to eighteen hours on the 23rd). This event only had three tornadoes (compared to ten on the 23rd). However, damage from two of these three tornadoes was significant due to the fact that it occurred over heavily populated areas. This event had no injuries, and the total damage cost was just under $450,000.

Tornado touched down near the intersection of SH 348 and Loop 197 in Texas City. Several businesses were damaged at the initial touchdown. The tornado moved east northeast and eventually crossed the Texas City dike where numerous power poles were knocked down. The tornado continued past the dike and moved into Galveston Bay as a waterspout.

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, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:44 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.

NWS Houston/Galveston, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Dec 30, 9:05 PM CST, 15 minutes earlier.

SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
905 PM CST MON DEC 30 2002

SQUALL LINE LOCATED FROM LIVINGSTON TO HOUSTON TO FREEPORT AT 03Z.
SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL CONTINUE EAST OF THIS LINE FOR ABOUT
ANOTHER 2 HOURS UNTIL TSRA PUSH EAST OF AREA. SO FAR...MOSTLY
REPORTS OF 40-50 MPH WINDS AND PEA SIZED HAIL WITH SQUALL LINE. PSX
RECORDED 60 MPH WIND GUST BUT THIS OCCURRED AS COLD FRONT PASSED THE
SITE.  COORD WITH SPC TO NOT REISSUE EXPIRED TOA FOR AREA. WILL
COVER REMAINING SEVERE THREAT WITH ANY WARNINGS THAT ARE NEEDED.

18Z ETA/AVN NOW FASTER WITH SPEED OF UPPER LOW WHICH SEEMS TO BE
VERIFYING BASED ON WV IMAGERY. UPPER LOW WILL CROSS CWA LATE TNGT
AND BE EAST OF AREA BY 18Z TUESDAY. WILL KEEP SCATTERED TSRA IN FCST
FOR REST OF TNGT AS ARRIVAL OF VERY COLD MID LEVEL TEMPS WILL
SUPPORT CONTINUED CONVECTIVE THREAT. NO CHANGES TO FIRST PERIOD
TEMPS BUT WILL CLEAN UP WIND WORDING. WILL UPDATE ZONES NOW TO DROP
WATCH AND LOWER POPS WRN HALF. WILL LIKELY DO ANOTHER UPDATE BY 06Z
ONCE SQUALL LINE EXITS AREA.

35/43/38

.HGX...SCA BAYS AND 0-60 NM WATERS.

UPDATE...
CLL TE 048/059 038/065 040 440
IAH TE 052/060 039/065 042 840
GLS TE 053/060 046/063 049 840

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION...
THE INITIAL S/W PUSHED THROUGH THE CWA THIS MORNING WITH LITTLE ADO.
ONLY A FEW SHRA LINGERING ACROSS THE REGION THIS AFTERNOON...BUT THE
ACTIVITY LEVEL HERE NOT QUITE AS HIGH AS OUR NEIGHBORING NWSO OFFICE
TO THE NORTH. TO OUR WEST...THUNDERSTORMS ARE STARTING TO LINE UP IN
ANTICIPATION FOR THIS EVENING. HOWEVER...LATEST MODELS ARE ADDING AN
INTERESTING TWIST: THE TIMING OF EVENTS HAVE SLOWED ONCE AGAIN. IN A
REMARKABLY SIMILAR FASHION AMONG THE VARIOUS PROGS...THE COLD FRONT/
UPPER TROUGH-LOW ARE NOW BEING PUSHED ACROSS THE AREA BETWEEN 6-12Z.
AS THIS TYPE OF MODEL AGREEMENT IS HARD TO IGNORE...WILL LIKELY BUMP
UP THE TIMING OF THINGS A FEW HOURS AS A COMPROMISE. THIS SLOWING OF
EVENTS MAKES THE SLIGHTLY HIGHER POPS/SLOWER CLOUD CLEARING FOR TOM-
ORROW THAT MUCH MORE POSSIBLE. GIVEN THAT MOST OF THIS IS ALREADY IN
THE ZONES...NOT MUCH CHANGE PLANNED FOR THAT PRODUCT. WE WILL LIKELY
SEE A FLAREUP OF THE LINE OF STORMS WELL TO OUR WEST AS THE NEXT S/W
ROUNDS THE BASE OF THE SEEMINGLY STILL DIGGING UPPER LOW AT/NEAR THE
BIG BEND. ALSO OF CONCERN FOR TOMORROW...LINGERING MOISTURE/POSSIBI-
LITY OF S/WS WRAPPING AROUND THE UPPER LOW COULD BRING SOME ELEVATED
POST FRONTAL STORMS. SHOULD THIS PAN OUT...THE LOWER FREEZING LEVELS
COULD HELP PRODUCE SOME HAIL. AT THIS TIME WILL LEAVE THE MENTION OF
SEVERE FOR TONIGHT ONLY. THE NEXT RUNS MAY SHED MORE LIGHT ON THIS.

DESPITE THE CHANGES IN THE SHORT TERM...THE EXTENDED PROGS ARE STILL
ON TRACK. THIS NEXT FRONT IS STILL SLATED FOR A LATE WED/EARLY THURS
PASSAGE AND A RELATIVELY DRY/QUIET WX PERIOD IS ON TAP THE REMAINDER
OF THE WEEK AND ON INTO THE WEEKEND GIVEN THE BUILDING UPPER RIDGE.

41/47

GMZ300-330-335-350-355-370-375-TXZ163-164-176>179-195>200-210>214-226-
227-235>238-311300-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
455 PM CST MON DEC 30 2002

...SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS THIS EVENING...

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND THE UPPER
TEXAS COASTAL WATERS.

.DAY ONE...
.TONIGHT...A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM AND A COLD FRONT WILL
APPROACH SOUTHEAST TEXAS TONIGHT. A SQUALL LINE...CURRENTLY ALONG THE
FRONT OVER CENTRAL TEXAS...WILL PUSH FROM WEST TO EAST ACROSS
THE AREA THIS EVENING. THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL BE LARGE
HAIL AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS. HOWEVER...A FEW STORMS COULD
PRODUCE TORNADOES. THE SQUALL LINE WILL ENTER THE WESTERN COUNTIES OF
SOUTHEAST TEXAS AROUND 6 PM...AND SWEEP OFF THE COAST BY MIDNIGHT.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...
.TUESDAY...THE UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS SOUTHEAST
TEXAS DURING THE DAY. THE COMBINATION OF LINGERING MOISTURE AND
COLD TEMPERATURES ALOFT WILL FAVOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCATTERED
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. DUE TO VERY COLD MID LEVEL TEMPERATURES
ASSOCIATED WITH THE STORM SYSTEM...SOME OF THE STORMS COULD PRODUCE
LARGE HAIL.

.WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...
SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE REQUIRED THIS EVENING.

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.

Galveston/Scholes (GLS), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Houston radar (KHGX), 19 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:20 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 2002 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.