F0 tornado, Port Lavaca, Texas, July 15, 2003

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.

Rating

F0

Date

July 15, 2003

Touchdown

11:45 AM CDT (16:45 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Calhoun County

Touchdown point

28.620, -96.630

Lift-off point

28.620, -96.630

Record number

576

Claudette began as a tropical wave in the far eastern Atlantic and strengthened into a tropical storm as she moved into the central Caribbean Sea. As Claudette passed the Yucatan Channel and entered the Gulf of Mexico on Friday July 12th, the steering currents relaxed and she slowed her northwesterly movement. Claudette produced tropical storm force winds and heavy rains primarily on her eastern quadrant, which spanned a large portion of the central Gulf and produced wave heights up to 15 feet. As early as Sunday July 13th large swells were reaching the sand dunes on Padre Island. Claudette wobbled slowly toward the middle Texas coast in very weak steering currents. The upper level shear in this system relaxed as expected providing the environment for Claudette to strengthen into a Hurricane. Claudette made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir/Simpson Scale near Port O'Connor, Texas (Calhoun County) on Tuesday July 15th around 1030 am. Just prior to landfall storm surge was 5 feet at Port O'Connor in combination with high astronomical tides. Wind speeds along the Northern Coastal Bend were generally sustained around 65 mph at landfall with gusts to 80 mph. Maximum sustained winds at the time of landfall were estimated by the National Hurricane Center at 90 mph. The Formosa Plant in Point Comfort recorded maximum sustained winds of 80 mph with a gust to 100 mph. The minimum central pressure of Claudette at the time of landfall was 981 MB (28.37 Inches). Claudette produced a brief tornado in Port Lavaca. Damage was not attributed directly to this tornado, rather to the hurricane winds.Claudette continued inland during the afternoon of the 15th across Victoria, Goliad and Bee counties weakening to a Tropical Storm. Claudette continued moving west across Live Oak, McMullen and La Salle counties during the evening and into EWX CWA. Claudette continued into Northwestern Mexico and into the Big Bend of Texas before dissipating on July 17th.Damages for all of Texas at the time of this writing stood at 45.7 million dollars in uninsured losses and 90.0 million in insured losses. These losses do not include crop damage, which were still pending at the time of this writing. In the State of Texas two indirect fatalities were also attributed to Claudette and six indirect injuries. One of the indirect fatalities occurred in the CRP CWA in Victoria when a woman was killed by a falling tree limb while surveying damage to her house. Over twenty thousand homes received damage across the CRP County Warning Area, most of which was classified as minor damage in Victoria County. Over six hundred homes received major damage, again most of which occurred in Victoria County. Over sixty homes were completely destroyed, mostly in Calhoun County.The heaviest rainfall with Claudette fell across Bee, Goliad and Refugio Counties. Widespread 4 to 6 inch amounts were estimated across these counties by CRP WSR-88D. Elsewhere along the path of Claudette totals ranged from 2 to 5 inches. Further south in CRP southern CWA totals remained under 1 inch expect for a thin band of 4 to 6 inch amounts stretching from the Padre Island National Seashore north into Refugio County.

Brief tornado touchdown associated with Hurricane Claudette. NWS Post Storm Survey Team concluded no direct damage associated with tornado. All damage around the area was associated with Hurricane Force winds from Claudette.

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.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 15:45 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 Corpus Christi, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jul 15, 9:55 AM CDT, 1 hour 50 minutes earlier.

COASTAL BEND FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTED FOR INLAND WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
955 AM CDT TUE JUL 15 2003

EYE OF CLAUDETTE IS MAKING LANDFALL AS WE SPEAK AS PER RADAR AND NHC
COORDINATION CALL.  WILL KEEP AND/OR INCREASE THE HIGH/CATEGORICAL
POPS FOR THE NORTHERN ZONES...WITH HIGH CHANCE POPS IN WEBB COUNTY
ONLY.  ACCORDING TO FORECAST TRACK OF CLAUDETTE...HEAVIEST RAIN WILL
BE IN NORTHERN COUNTIES.  WILL MENTION HEAVY RAINFALL IN SOUTHERN
COUNTIES BUT WILL NOT ISSUE FFA AT THIS TIME AND RE-EVALUATE THIS
AFTERNOON AS CLAUDETTES TRACK UNFOLDS.  BASED ON RAINFALL POTENTIAL
TO THE NORTH...WILL ADJUST TEMPS ACCORDINGLY.  MAY MAKE A FEW
CHANGES TO THE EVENING PERIOD...BUT AFTER THAT NO SIGNIFICANT
CHANGES TO THE LATER PERIODS AT THIS TIME.

.CRP...FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR TXZ230>234-244>247.
       HURRICANE WARNING IN EFFECT FOR COASTAL COUNTIES
       TXZ242>247 AND GMZ230-235-250-255-270-275.
       INLAND TROPICAL STORM WIND WARNING TXZ230>234.
       INLAND TROPICAL STORM WIND WATCH TXZ229.

86/SHORT-TERM
89/LONG-TERM

TXZ229>234-239>247-161100-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
709 AM CDT TUE JUL 15 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTH TEXAS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FROM BAFFIN BAY TO PORT OCONNOR.
ALSO...AN INLAND TROPICAL STORM WIND WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR
VICTORIA...GOLIAD...BEE...JIM WELLS...LIVE OAK AND MCMULLEN
COUNTIES. AN INLAND TROPICAL STORM WIND WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR DUVAL
AND LASALLE COUNTIES. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE
COUNTIES OF ARANSAS...BEE...CALHOUN...GOLIAD...LIVE OAK...MCMULLEN...
REFUGIO...SAN PATRICIO AND VICTORIA.

HIGH SWELLS PRODUCED BY TROPICAL STORM CLAUDETTE WILL CONTINUE TO
AFFECT THE SOUTH TEXAS COAST AND ADJACENT COASTAL WATERS TODAY. SMALL
CRAFT SHOULD REMAIN IN PORT. WATER LEVELS OVER THE BAYS AND WATERWAYS
ARE AROUND 2 TO 2.5 FEET ABOVE NORMAL...AND WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE
TODAY AND TONIGHT...ESPECIALLY DURING TIME OF HIGH TIDE. THIS
AFTERNOON...STORM TIDE LEVELS BETWEEN 2 AND 4 FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA
LEVEL ARE EXPECTED SOUTH OF ROCKPORT. NORTH OF ROCKPORT...TIDES OF 4
TO 6 FEET ARE EXPECTED.

THE LATEST FORECAST FROM THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER IS FOR
HURRICANE CLAUDETTE TO MOVE ONSHORE NEAR ROCKPORT THIS AFTERNOON.
A BRIEF PERIOD OF HURRICANE FORCE WINDS WILL ENTER THE COUNTIES
OF ARANSAS AND REFUGIO. TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO
MOVE ACROSS MUCH OF THE NORTHERN PORTIONS OF THE COASTAL BEND THIS
AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

FLASH FLOODING IS POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...AS CLAUDETTE
GENERATES RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 2 TO 3 INCHES NORTH OF A LINE FROM
ROCKPORT TO ENCINAL...AND LESS THAN 2 INCHES SOUTH OF THIS LINE.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

BY WEDNESDAY...TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS FROM CLAUDETTE WILL RANGE FROM
5 TO 8 INCHES NORTH OF THE LINE FROM ROCKPORT TO ENCINAL...WITH 2 TO
4 INCHES SOUTH OF THIS LINE.

CLAUDETTE WILL CONTINUE MOVING WEST ACROSS THE NORTHERN RIO GRANDE
PLAINS ON WEDNESDAY. RAINFALL ON WEDNESDAY COULD BE HEAVY AND CAUSE
LOCALIZED FLOODING. POSSIBLE COASTAL FLOODING AND VERY HIGH SEAS
WILL SLOWLY DIMINISH WEDNESDAY NIGHT. NEAR NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND
MOSTLY A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL EXIT THE
REMAINDER OF THE PERIOD.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS REQUESTED TODAY AND TONIGHT FOR THE COASTAL
BEND.

WC/BB

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
946 AM CDT TUE JUL 15 2003

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

0940 AM    PORT OCONNOR              TX   HURRICANE
07/15/03   CALHOUN                        TCOON MESONET SITE MEASURED
                                          75 MPH WIND GUST

TMT

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
1027 AM CDT TUE JUL 15 2003

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

1020 AM    POINT COMFORT             TX   HURRICANE
07/15/03   CALHOUN                        NORTHEAST WINDS AT 84 MPH
                                          REPORTED BY FORMOSA PLANT.

TMT

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
1056 AM CDT TUE JUL 15 2003

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

1050 AM    PORT LAVACA               TX   HURRICANE
07/15/03   CALHOUN                        88 MPH SUSTAINED WIND
                                          REPORTED BY CALHOUN COUNTY
                                          EOC WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 100
                                          MPH. TREES DOWN ACROSS THE
                                          CITY. ROOFS COMING OFF
                                          HOMES IN PORT LAVACA.

1052 AM    POINT COMFORT             TX   HURRICANE
07/15/03   CALHOUN                        94 MPH SUSTAINED WIND WITH
                                          GUSTS TO 104 MPH AT THE
                                          FORMOSA PLASTICS PLANT.

TMT

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.

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:46 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 2003 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.