Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2004

F0 tornado, Morales, Texas, May 11, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Jackson County on May 11, 2004, touching down at 1:45 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
May 11, 2004
Touchdown
1:45 PM CDT (18:45 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
29.150, -96.750
Lift-off point
29.150, -96.750
Record number
1250

What the Weather Service recorded

F0 tornado damaged a rural fence.

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
17:22 UTC17:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
18:33 UTC19:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 16:19 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

6.8 hours before the tornado, 168 km from the path. May 11, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2004-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2170 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 548 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 12:00Z on 2004-05-11The 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 89 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
2170 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2792 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
548 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
152 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
6.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.2 hours after it, 168 km from the path. May 12, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2004-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1076 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 849 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 00:00Z on 2004-05-12The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
1076 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2095 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
849 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:46 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 03 Ene DanevangWharton, TXRAINFALL OF 5 TO 6 INCHES REPORTED IN AND AROUND DANEVANG AS OF 1345 CDT.
18:45 UTCTORNADO2 Ne MoralesJackson, TXPUBLIC WITNESSED TORNADO WHICH DAMAGED RURAL AREA FENCE. DOPPLER RADAR SIGNATURE CONFIRMS TORNADO AT 1345 CDT.
18:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGEdnaJackson, TXTREES DOWN.

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

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 May 11, 2004

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 114:25 PM CDTF1Montgomery, TX1.0250$360,000
May 115:31 PM CDTF0Hartley, TX1.025$2,000
May 116:19 PM CDTF0Hartley, TX0.125
May 116:30 PM CDTF0Wilkin, MN0.125
May 116:58 PM CDTF0Wilkin, MN0.125
May 117:40 PM CDTF0Otter Tail, MN0.125
May 118:22 PM CDTF0Becker, MN1.025
May 119:05 PM CDTF1Becker, MN0.250
May 119:15 PM CDTF1Otter Tail, MN0.250

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.