Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2002

F2 tornado, (Crp)Corpus Christi, Texas, October 24, 2002

This F2 tornado ran 2.5 miles across Nueces County on October 24, 2002, touching down at 2:19 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 20, and did $75 million 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 mph

    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 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
October 24, 2002
Touchdown
2:19 PM CDT (19:19 UTC)
Path length
2.5 miles (4.0 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
20
Property damage
$75 million
County
Nueces County
Touchdown point
27.730, -97.620
Lift-off point
27.780, -97.420
Record number
880

What the Weather Service recorded

One Confirmed fatality and many injuries. The Tornado was first indentified by the public approximately 8 miles south of the CCI airport. Most extensive damage reported across Del MAr College.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
MSchoolDirect

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:19 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:19 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningCRP
19:19 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningCRP
20:02 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningCRP
20:02 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningCRP
20:07 UTC23:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningCRP
20:49 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningCRP
20:49 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningCRP

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 15:39 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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 18 km from the path. October 24, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-10-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1063 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 575 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-10-24The 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 125 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
1063 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1294 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
575 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
125 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 18 km from the path. October 25, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-10-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 587 joules per kilogram, CIN -54, lifted condensation level 755 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-10-25The 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 -3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
587 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-54 J/kg
Surface CAPE
348 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
755 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Corpus Christi International (CRP), 2 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:51 UTC7774130° 12 kt1011.2-RA BR
18:14 UTC7775.2130° 17 kt1011.5+TSRA BR
18:22 UTC7775.2140° 14 kt1011.2-TSRA
18:35 UTC7775.2150° 15 kt241011.2
18:51 UTC7775150° 18 kt1009.8
19:19 UTC7775.2140° 14 kt1009.5+TSRA BR
19:22 UTC7775.2140° 17 kt231009.5+TSRA BR
19:30 UTC75.273.4110° 18 kt231008.8+TSRA FG
19:36 UTC75.273.4110° 7 kt181008.8+TSRA BR
19:51 UTC7573340° 22 kt271010.2+TSRA FG
19:56 UTC71.669.8360° 21 kt271009.1+TSRA FG
20:08 UTC71.669.8340° 28 kt391010.5+TSRA FG
20:51 UTC716920° 25 kt311009.8-RA

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

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 3 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:20 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.

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 October 24, 2002

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 243:41 PM CDTF1Nueces, TX1.51006$10 million

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.