Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2003

F1 tornado, Hidalgo County, Texas, April 30, 2003

This F1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Hidalgo County on April 30, 2003, touching down at 1:09 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 11, and did $1.5 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
April 30, 2003
Touchdown
1:09 AM CDT (06:09 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
11
Property damage
$1.5 million
County
Hidalgo County
Touchdown point
26.230, -98.450
Lift-off point
26.230, -98.450
Record number
163

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:01 UTC06:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBRO
06:01 UTC06:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBRO

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:19 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.

Brownsville Intl, TX (KBRO), 00:00Z

6.2 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. April 30, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brownsville Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 2003-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2412 joules per kilogram, CIN -73, lifted condensation level 559 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, Brownsville Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 2003-04-30The 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 -12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
2412 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-73 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2996 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
559 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Brownsville Intl, TX (KBRO), 12:00Z

5.8 hours after it, 111 km from the path. April 30, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brownsville Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 2003-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2406 joules per kilogram, CIN -174, lifted condensation level 685 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, Brownsville Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 2003-04-30The 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 2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
2406 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-174 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2747 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
685 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mcallen/Miller International (MFE), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:31 UTC75.273.4 4 kt1009.5BR
04:40 UTC75.273.4310° 3 kt1010.5
04:53 UTC7674340° 6 kt1010.8BR
05:19 UTC7773.4350° 9 kt1012.2
05:29 UTC7773.4360° 10 kt1011.9
05:43 UTC7773.4350° 5 kt1011.9VCTS
05:53 UTC777420° 6 kt1012.2VCTS
06:12 UTC7773.4 5 kt1012.9-TSRA
06:16 UTC75.273.4330° 26 kt431012.9-TSRA BR SQ
06:18 UTC73.471.610° 35 kt471013.2+TSRA BR SQ
06:29 UTC69.866.2130° 16 kt291011.2+TSRA BR
06:35 UTC71.669.8120° 14 kt221011.2-TSRA BR
06:38 UTC71.669.8130° 15 kt221010.8-TSRA BR
06:53 UTC7267140° 11 kt1010.5TS
07:09 UTC73.469.880° 8 kt1010.2
07:26 UTC73.471.6150° 5 kt1009.8
07:53 UTC7472150° 8 kt1009.5BR

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 30, 2003

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 304:00 PM MDTF0Weld, CO0.150
April 304:21 PM MDTF0Weld, CO0.150
April 306:30 PM CDTF0Monroe, IA2.525
April 306:35 PM CDTF0Louisa, IA16.0880$200,000
April 306:42 PM CDTF1Mercer, IL0.075$500,000
April 306:45 PM CDTF0Wapello, IA0.220
April 306:57 PM CDTF0Mercer, IL0.820$50,000
April 307:04 PM CDTF0Harrison, MO2.050
April 307:08 PM CDTF1Mercer, IL0.150$500,000
April 307:11 PM CDTF0Mercer, IL0.525$250,000
April 307:12 PM CDTF1Mercer, IL0.575$300,000
April 307:15 PM CDTF0Platte, MO1.050
April 307:22 PM CDTF0Harrison, MO10.0100$3,000
April 307:29 PM CDTF0Henry, IL0.050
April 307:35 PM CDTF0Platte, MO0.225
April 308:30 PM CDTF0Knox, IL1.010
April 308:55 PM CDTF0Putnam, MO2.050
April 309:53 PM CDTF0Schuyler, MO6.0300
April 3010:17 PM CDTF0Cowley, KS2.0110
April 3010:37 PM CDTF0Chautauqua, KS1.0110
April 3010:58 PM CDTF0Chautauqua, KS0.555

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.