Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2004

F0 tornado, Danevang, Texas, June 23, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Wharton County on June 23, 2004, touching down at 2:16 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $60,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 23, 2004
Touchdown
2:16 PM CDT (19:16 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$60,000
County
Wharton County
Touchdown point
29.100, -96.230
Lift-off point
29.100, -96.230
Record number
297

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado touch down at FM 2674 and FM County Road 324 west of Highway 71. Caused roof and porch damage to a home and damaged two mobile homes.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:19 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningHGX
21:20 UTC23:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningHGX
21:55 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
23:09 UTC02:15 UTCFlash Flood 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 15:34 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, 187 km from the path. June 23, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2004-06-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 358 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 581 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2004-06-23The 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 -31 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 6 knots.1939Sfc1 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
358 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
459 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
581 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-46 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.7 hours after it, 187 km from the path. June 24, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2004-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2268 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 902 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2004-06-24The 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 -18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2268 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2233 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
902 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bay City Regional (BYY), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:25 UTC80.671.6110° 11 kt1015.9
17:45 UTC80.671.6120° 9 kt1015.9
18:05 UTC80.671.6120° 12 kt1015.6
18:25 UTC80.671.6130° 11 kt1015.9
18:45 UTC80.669.8110° 11 kt1015.9
19:05 UTC80.671.6130° 9 kt1015.6
19:25 UTC80.671.6120° 13 kt1015.6
19:45 UTC8671.6120° 11 kt161015.2
20:05 UTC8673.4130° 10 kt1014.9
20:25 UTC8673.4130° 8 kt1014.9
20:45 UTC8677130° 9 kt1014.9
21:05 UTC87.873.4150° 12 kt1014.6

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:17 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 2004 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 23, 2004

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 2310:44 AM CDTF1Grand Forks, ND6.050
June 2311:15 AM CDTF1Grand Forks, ND6.550
June 236:22 PM CDTF1Jackson, WI5.050$70,000
June 236:28 PM CDTF1Jackson, WI4.030$10,000
June 237:00 PM CDTF1Monroe, WI4.5503$70,000
June 237:20 PM CDTF1Juneau, WI18.05013$110,000
June 238:35 PM EDTF0Craven, NC0.130
June 237:46 PM CDTF1Portage, WI1.525
June 237:47 PM CDTF0Portage, WI0.110
June 237:53 PM CDTF2Portage, WI10.0125$1.1 million
June 238:00 PM CDTF2Marquette, WI11.0200$1.0 million
June 239:17 PM EDTF0Craven, NC0.125
June 238:23 PM CDTF0Dane, WI0.125$3,000
June 239:30 PM EDTF0Pamlico, NC0.130
June 238:33 PM CDTF3Green Lake, WI33.3400$15 million
June 238:35 PM CDTF1Dane, WI7.8200$1.5 million
June 238:35 PM CDTF3Green Lake, WI7.630011$2.3 million
June 239:00 PM CDTF1Outagamie, WI3.5100$6.8 million
June 239:10 PM CDTF1Washington, WI7.6150$110,000
June 239:19 PM CDTF0Washington, WI0.125
June 239:23 PM CDTF1Jefferson, WI7.8150$150,000
June 239:27 PM CDTF0Brown, WI0.110
June 238:10 PM PDTF0Baker, OR0.13

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.