Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2002

F1 tornado, Rusk to Reklaw, Texas, March 30, 2002

Name: F1 tornado, Rusk to Reklaw, Texas, March 30, 2002
Start: 2002-03-30T22:42:00.000Z
Location: Rusk to Reklaw, Texas

From Rusk to Reklaw, this F1 tornado ran 33.0 miles across Cherokee and Rusk counties on March 30, 2002, touching down at 4:42 PM CST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
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: F1
Date: March 30, 2002
Touchdown: 4:42 PM CST (22:42 UTC)
Path length: 33.0 miles (53.1 km)
Path width: 150 yards (137 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Counties: Cherokee and Rusk counties
Touchdown point: 31.670, -95.300
Lift-off point: 31.920, -94.780
Record number: 468

What the Weather Service recorded

Damage was confined to felled pine trees, broken tree tops and tree limbs. An old hay barn had its tin roof peeled. This tornado moved into Rusk County, TX.

Damage was confined to felled pine trees, broken tree tops and tree limbs. This tornado continued from Cherokee County, TX.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 19:13 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.

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 Shreveport, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 30, 2:55 PM CST, 1 hour 47 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 30, 2:55 PM CST, 1 hour 47 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
255 PM CST SAT MAR 30 2002

WILL CONTINUE WITH SAME FORECAST TRENDS WITH FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT
ACROSS NORTHERN AND WESTERN PORTIONS OF FORECAST AREA. MESOETA
CONTINUES THE HEAVY RAIN THREAT IN THIS AREA...WHICH HAS EXPERIENCED
AMOUNTS EXCEEDING 4 INCHES IN SOME LOCATIONS.  EXPECT ANOTHER 1 TO 3
INCHES OF RAIN TONIGHT...MAINLY ACROSS NORTHERN PORTIONS OF WATCH
AREA....WITH PRECIP PROLONGED INTO EARLY SUNDAY MORNING WITH WRAP
AROUND FROM LOW. MODELS HAVE LOW OVER SHV AROUND 12Z SUNDAY...AND
WITH DRY SLOT MOVING IN FROM SOUTHWEST...SO EAST CENTRAL TEXAS
SHOULD BE IN CLEAR FIRST. BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON...MOST OF CWA SHOULD
BE RAIN FREE BEHIND THE DEPARTING LOW.

DRY AND MILD WEATHER FORECAST FOR MONDAY WITH HIGH TEMPS IN THE
UPPER 60S AND LOWER 70S.

WILL ALLOW EXTENDED WORDING TO REMAIN DRY...BUT TOWARD THE END OF
WEEK A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS OR THUNDERSTORMS WITH FRONTAL
PASSAGE WEDNESDAY. WARM FIRST HALF OF WEEK WITH SLIGHTLY BELOW
NORMALS END OF WEEK.

SHV 58/73/50/72 8400
MLU 56/71/48/70 8300
TXK 50/65/46/71 +400
TYR 53/69/49/73 +300
LFK 57/75/50/74 8200

.SHV...FFA THROUGH TONIGHT...
ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-OKZ077-TXZ096-097-
108>112-124>126-136>138-149>151.

14

In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 30, 4:40 PM CST, 2 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT, LA
440 PM CST SAT MAR 30 2002

TIME(CST)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0750 AM    2 W ATLANTA               TX   WIND DAMAGE
03/30/02   CASS                           DOWNBURST WINDS OF 80-100 MPH
                                          ON WEST AND SOUTH SIDE OF
                                          ATLANTA INITIAL DAMAGE PATH
                                          MEASURED 3/4 MILE IN
                                          DIAMETER...WITH ENDING PATH
                                          MEASURING 3.3 MILES WIDE TOTAL
                                          DAMAGE PATH MEASURED WAS 5.1 MILES
                                          LONG REPORT FROM NWS SURVEY

0755 AM    ATLANTA                   TX   WIND DAMAGE
03/30/02   CASS                           DOWNBURST WINDS PARTIALLY
                                          STRIPPED A MCDONALDS SIGN
                                          AWNING COLLAPSED ON A CAR
                                          AT A TEXACO STATION PINE
                                          TREE MEASURING 1/2 - 1 FOOT
                                          IN DIAMETER UPROOTED A GAS
                                          MAIN IN ATLANTA TREES ON
                                          HOUSES ALONG HWY 251 JUST
                                          SOUTH OF ATLANTA REPORT
                                          FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT

0815 AM    DODDRIDGE                 AR   WIND DAMAGE
03/30/02   MILLER                         ROOF AND INSOLATION BLOWN
                                          OFF A HOUSE IN THE BRIGHT
                                          STAR COMMUNITY PORCH WAS
                                          BLOWN DOWN NUMEROUS TREES
                                          DOWN OVER ROADS REPORT
                                          FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT

0855 AM    SHREVEPORT                LA   NON TSTM WIND GUST
03/30/02   CADDO                          ASSOCIATED WITH COLD
                                          FRONTAL PASSAGE AWNINGS
                                          WERE BLOWN OFF IN PARKING
                                          LOT AT HARRAHS CASINO IN
                                          DOWNTOWN SHREVEPORT ROOF
                                          DAMAGE SUSTAINED AT PARKING
                                          GARAGE AT THE CASINO 1 CAR
                                          DAMAGED IN GARAGE REPORT
                                          FROM OEP

0930 AM    1 S NASHVILLE             AR   FLOODING
03/30/02   HOWARD                         INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 27 AND
                                          TRENTON BLVD WAS UNDERWATER
                                          REPORT FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT

15

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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

10.7 hours before the tornado, 143 km from the path. March 30, 2002.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 1471 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -104 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 1350 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 622 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 117 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 193 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.8
Supercell composite: 2.8
0-3 km lapse rate: 4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

1.3 hours after it, 143 km from the path. March 31, 2002.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -221 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 454 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 79 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 370 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 459 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 4.4
0-3 km lapse rate: 4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Nacogdoches (Awos) (OCH), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
20:55 UTC	69.8	62.6	70° 9 kt	16	1006.1
21:15 UTC	66.2	62.6	80° 10 kt		1006.4	VCTS
21:35 UTC	66.2	62.6	60° 10 kt	17	1006.1	TS
21:55 UTC	66.2	62.6	80° 12 kt	15	1005.4
22:15 UTC	66.2	62.6	80° 9 kt	20	1005.1
22:35 UTC	68	62.6	70° 5 kt		1005.4
22:55 UTC	66.2	62.6	80° 9 kt		1004.7
23:15 UTC	66.2	62.6	80° 9 kt	17	1004.4	TS
23:35 UTC	66.2	62.6	170° 6 kt	21	1004.7	TS
23:55 UTC	66.2	62.6	110° 15 kt		1004.4	VCTS
00:15 UTC	66.2	62.6	290° 17 kt	26	1006.1	TS
00:35 UTC	62.6	60.8	360° 11 kt	17	1006.4	VCTS

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

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:43 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 track Every 2002 tornado in Texas Every tornado in Texas since 1950 Warnings in force in Texas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 30, 2002

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 30	12:51 PM CST	F0	Falls, TX	0.7	75		$1,000
March 30	1:06 PM CST	F1	Runnels, TX	3.0	85		$30,000
March 30	1:21 PM CST	F2	Limestone, TX	7.0	440		$250,000
March 30	1:45 PM CST	F1	Runnels, TX	0.5	100
March 30	1:55 PM CST	F0	Limestone, TX	3.5	30		$4,000
March 30	2:17 PM CST	F0	Taylor, TX	0.2	20
March 30	2:17 PM CST	F0	Taylor, TX	0.2	20
March 30	2:40 PM CST	F1	Callahan, TX	9.0	200
March 30	3:10 PM CST	F0	Callahan, TX	0.3	30
March 30	3:52 PM CST	F0	Hamilton, TX	1.2	40		$10,000
March 30	3:59 PM CST	F1	Eastland, TX	1.0	100		$50,000
March 30	4:05 PM CST	F0	Hamilton, TX	2.5	100		$70,000
March 30	4:10 PM CST	F0	Eastland, TX	0.1	30
March 30	4:20 PM CST	F0	Erath, TX	0.1	30
March 30	4:24 PM CST	F0	Anderson, TX	0.1	30
March 30	5:30 PM CST	F0	Wharton, TX	0.5	20
March 30	5:36 PM CST	F0	Fort Bend, TX	0.5	30		$150,000
March 30	5:40 PM CST	F0	Wharton, TX	0.5	50		$50,000
March 30	6:15 PM CST	F0	Nacogdoches, TX	3.0	50
March 30	6:50 PM CST	F3	Angelina, TX	49.0	440	6	$6.2 million
March 30	7:15 PM CST	F0	Fort Bend, TX	0.5	30		$20,000
March 30	8:09 PM CST	F3	Harris, TX	0.7	60		$350,000

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.