Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2002

F0 tornado, Eola to Eden, Texas, May 4, 2002

From Eola to Eden, this F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Concho County on May 4, 2002, touching down at 8:44 PM CDT and reaching 50 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.

  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
May 4, 2002
Touchdown
8:44 PM CDT (01:44 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Concho County
Touchdown point
31.350, -100.000
Lift-off point
31.380, -99.930
Record number
653

What the Weather Service recorded

A supercell thunderstorm developed over San Angelo and moved east for four and a half hours over portions of Tom Green, Concho, McCulloch and San Saba counties. This storm produced a total of five tornadoes. These tornadoes for the most part remained over open country, with only two structures receiving damage to the northeast of Brady. This storm also produced a tremendous amount of hail, with numerous reports of golfball size hail with many trees completely stripped of their leaves. There were a few reports of of hail up to softball size in McCulloch County. Other thunderstorms formed over the Big Country, one of which produced a brief tornado near Roby in Fisher county. Hail up to the size of baseballs was also noted with several of these storms.

Spotters reported tornado over open country in Western Concho County.

A supercell thunderstorm moving through Concho County produced its third tornado of the evening northwest of Eden. This tornado moved over open country.

A supercell thunderstorm moving over northern Concho County produced a fourth tornado northwest of Eden. This tornado also moved over open country.

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

The warnings

39 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:05 UTC, 39 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:49 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
01:05 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningSJT
01:57 UTC03:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningSJT
01:57 UTC05:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningSJT
02:15 UTC03:15 UTCTornado WarningSJT

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 01:20 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

1.7 hours before the tornado, 221 km from the path. May 5, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 806 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 2597 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-05-05The 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 78 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
806 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
590 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2597 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.4
0-3 km lapse rate
9.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

10.3 hours after it, 221 km from the path. May 5, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1652 joules per kilogram, CIN -137, lifted condensation level 740 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-05-05The 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 158 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1652 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-137 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1404 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
740 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
202 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

San Angelo/Mathis (SJT), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:53 UTC8070100° 17 kt211012.9-TSRA
00:11 UTC75.266.2300° 28 kt331013.9TS
00:20 UTC7766.2310° 35 kt431014.9TS
00:30 UTC80.666.2 5 kt151014.6TS
00:53 UTC746720° 9 kt1014.6TS
01:05 UTC73.46830° 10 kt1014.6
01:53 UTC736850° 10 kt1015.6
02:53 UTC736780° 12 kt1015.9

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

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 May 4, 2002

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 48:30 PM EDTF0Dorchester, SC0.225
May 48:55 PM EDTF0Dorchester, SC0.225
May 48:09 PM CDTF0Tom Green, TX0.530
May 49:10 PM EDTF0Berkeley, SC0.120
May 48:12 PM CDTF0Concho, TX1.050
May 48:23 PM CDTF0Concho, TX2.075
May 49:18 PM CDTF0Fisher, TX1.040
May 410:30 PM CDTF0McCulloch, TX3.0150$20,000
May 411:15 PM CDTF0Scurry, TX0.5200$10,000
May 411:45 PM CDTF0Mitchell, TX0.8250$50,000
May 412:03 AM CDTF0Mitchell, TX0.1150

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.