Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2004

F0 tornado, Denton County, Texas, June 6, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Denton County on June 6, 2004, touching down at 8:23 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 6, 2004
Touchdown
8:23 PM CDT (01:23 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Denton County
Touchdown point
33.400, -97.230
Lift-off point
33.400, -97.230
Record number
1371

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:05 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:41 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
01:05 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningFWD
01:38 UTC03:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
02:46 UTC04:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
04:49 UTC07:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
06:00 UTC10:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD

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 00:46 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

1.4 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. June 7, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2004-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2109 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 1320 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2004-06-07The 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 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 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
2109 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2219 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1320 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

10.6 hours after it, 64 km from the path. June 7, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2004-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 539 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 599 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2004-06-07The 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 44 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.193958Sfc1 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
539 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
209 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
599 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Denton (DTO), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:53 UTC727040° 10 kt1008.8-RA
00:46 UTC73.471.630° 10 kt1008.5VCTS
00:53 UTC7271340° 15 kt181009.5TS
01:53 UTC7068350° 10 kt1009.1-TSRA
02:15 UTC69.868310° 26 kt381008.5+TSRA BR
02:25 UTC69.868290° 17 kt251010.8+TSRA BR
02:27 UTC69.868290° 15 kt251011.2+TSRA BR
02:31 UTC6868280° 10 kt221011.5+TSRA BR
02:38 UTC6868 4 kt1011.2+TSRA BR
02:46 UTC686840° 3 kt1010.8+TSRA BR
02:53 UTC686850° 5 kt1010.8TSRA BR
03:13 UTC69.868160° 5 kt1011.9-TSRA

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

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 6, 2004

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 65:15 PM CDTF0Columbia, WA to OR0.530
June 67:17 PM CDTF1McLean, ND11.050
June 67:34 PM CDTF2Ward, ND8.0150
June 67:58 PM CDTF0Ward, ND0.030
June 68:14 PM CDTF0McLean, ND2.040
June 68:56 PM CDTF0McHenry, ND3.040
June 69:00 PM CDTF0Denton, TX0.150$1,000
June 69:32 PM CDTF0Renville, ND1.040
June 69:50 PM CDTF0Wells, ND0.030
June 611:10 PM CDTF1Eddy, ND0.250
June 612:30 AM CDTF1Towner, ND0.550

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.