F0 tornado, Green Lake to Long Mott, Texas, April 6, 2004

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

April 6, 2004

Touchdown

11:22 AM CDT (16:22 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Calhoun County

Touchdown point

28.550, -96.870

Lift-off point

28.550, -96.870

Record number

864

A strong upper level disturbance moved out of Northern Mexico and into to South Texas during the morning of the 6th. Low level winds ahead of the system backed to the east as winds increased in the mid levels resulting in strong deep layer shear. Several supercell thunderstorms developed inland over the Coastal Bend. An HP supercell moved from near Beeville into south-central Goliad county and through northern Refugio, southern Victoria and Calhoun counties. NWS radar estimated a wide swath of 2-3 inches of rainfall across this area, with localized amounts of 3 to 4 inches, producing flash flooding. In addition, this storm produced three F0 tornadoes along it's path through Southern Victoria and Calhoun counties. Additional rotating storms across Kleberg and Nueces county produced flash flooding in Nueces county as well as one confirmed F0 tornado along the coast in Northeast Kleberg county.

Trained spotter reported a tornado briefly touching down over open country near Highway 185, northwest of Green Lake.

NWS storm survey concluded tornado touched down in Long Mott and crossed Highway 185. Tornado damaged a home and adjacent barn as well as uprooted several large trees. Eleven power poles along Highway 185 were downed. An ultra-light aircraft also sustained damage.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:55 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:45 UTC.

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 12:59 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 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.

Victoria Regional (VCT), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:22 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.