Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2003

F1 tornado, Chambers County, Texas, November 17, 2003

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Chambers County on November 17, 2003, touching down at 5:30 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, and did $100,000 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
November 17, 2003
Touchdown
5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$100,000
County
Chambers County
Touchdown point
29.830, -94.770
Lift-off point
29.830, -94.770
Record number
87

The warnings

14 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:16 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:46 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningHGX
23:16 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
00:01 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
05:26 UTC06:15 UTCTornado WarningHGX

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 19:45 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.

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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. November 17, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2003-11-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 413 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 895 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2003-11-17The 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 101 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
413 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
496 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
895 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 155 km from the path. November 18, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2003-11-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 877 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 631 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2003-11-18The 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 200 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 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
877 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1753 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
631 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
222 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:32 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 2003 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 17, 2003

26 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 178:33 AM CSTF0Wharton, TX0.525$1,000
November 178:38 AM CSTF0Wharton, TX1.01002$10,000
November 179:10 AM CSTF0Matagorda, TX0.575$30,000
November 179:10 AM CSTF0Wharton, TX0.550$2,000
November 179:20 AM CSTF0Wharton, TX0.220
November 1710:00 AM CSTF0Wharton, TX1.050$20,000
November 1712:05 PM CSTF2Fort Bend, TX1.520060$500,000
November 1712:15 PM CSTF2Fort Bend, TX1.050$800,000
November 171:00 PM CSTF0Harris, TX0.250
November 172:50 PM CSTF0Brazoria, TX1.0751$70,000
November 173:01 PM CSTF2Harris, TX0.7100$550,000
November 174:25 PM CSTF0Galveston, TX0.130$100,000
November 174:40 PM CSTF0Galveston, TX1.030$30,000
November 174:50 PM CSTF0Chambers, TX0.125
November 175:20 PM CSTF0Harris, TX0.550$30,000
November 175:20 PM CSTF0Cass, NE0.140
November 175:42 PM CSTF0Liberty, TX0.220$10,000
November 175:45 PM CSTF1Liberty, TX0.220$30,000
November 178:55 PM CSTF0Harris, TX1.420$10,000
November 179:08 PM CSTF1Galveston, TX0.225$200,000
November 179:15 PM CSTF1Galveston, TX0.250$280,000
November 179:15 PM CSTF2Newton, TX1.020$1.0 million
November 179:30 PM CSTF0Harris, TX0.550$50,000
November 1710:30 PM CSTF1Harris, TX1.5503$230,000
November 1711:15 PM CSTF1Jasper, TX5.050$1.0 million
November 1711:35 PM CSTF1Chambers, TX1.050$300,000

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.