Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2004

F1 tornado, Wharton, Texas, June 8, 2004

This F1 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Wharton County on June 8, 2004, touching down at 10:00 AM CDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 6, and did $300,000 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
June 8, 2004
Touchdown
10:00 AM CDT (15:00 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
6
Property damage
$300,000
County
Wharton County
Touchdown point
29.320, -96.100
Lift-off point
29.320, -96.100
Record number
1377

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado formed just outside city limits and caused damage to shopping center roof, several homes, and overturned a pump house as it entered Wharton. A mobile home was flipped over, damage occurred to several out houses, and vehicles. Numerous trees and power lines were knocked down. Overall, six minor injuries were reported, mainly from flying glass.

Second tornado that traveled east of, and nearly parallel to, the first tornado through Wharton. Several 3 to 4 foot diameter trees were snapped in half with power lines knocked down.

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.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:52 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

3.0 hours before the tornado, 214 km from the path. June 8, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2004-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 795 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 642 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2004-06-08The 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 -22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 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
795 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
519 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
642 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.0 hours after it, 214 km from the path. June 9, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2004-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 882 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 681 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2004-06-09The 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 -39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 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
882 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1339 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
681 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bay City Regional (BYY), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
13:05 UTC80.673.4130° 12 kt1013.5HZ
13:25 UTC80.673.4130° 12 kt151013.5HZ
13:45 UTC80.673.4130° 9 kt1013.5-DZ
14:05 UTC80.673.4130° 9 kt1013.5HZ
14:26 UTC80.673.4130° 12 kt161013.5-DZ
15:05 UTC71.668160° 16 kt271014.6+RA
15:08 UTC73.469.8160° 13 kt261014.6+RA
15:25 UTC73.471.6160° 11 kt181014.6+RA
15:45 UTC73.471.6140° 13 kt1014.9RA
16:05 UTC73.471.6130° 5 kt1014.2RA
16:26 UTC73.471.6170° 8 kt1015.2RA
16:45 UTC73.469.8150° 9 kt141015.2-RA

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:01 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 8, 2004

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 810:05 AM CDTF1Wharton, TX4.040$100,000
June 810:45 AM CDTF0Washington, TX1.025$40,000
June 84:05 PM EDTF0Lee, FL2.050$40,000
June 84:46 PM EDTF0Lee, FL0.530
June 85:20 PM EDTF0Manatee, FL0.550$10,000
June 88:45 PM CDTF0Travis, TX0.5100$150,000

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.