F2 tornado, Kirbyville to Holly Spgs, Texas, November 23, 2004

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

November 23, 2004

Touchdown

4:55 PM CST (22:55 UTC)

Path length

15.0 miles (24.1 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Jasper and Newton counties

Touchdown point

30.650, -94.000

Lift-off point

30.780, -93.730

Record number

652

As the tornado moved into rural sections of Jasper County, it snapped numerous trees, causing a large loss to the timber industry. Several homes were destroyed, but no one was injured.

A second tornado formed near Kirbyville, narrowly missing downtown, but it did hit the community of Bon Ami. Around 10 to 15 homes were damaged or destroyed, and another large hit to the timber industry occurred with many trees blown down. This tornado crosses into Newton County.

The tornado moved across mainly rural areas of Newton County, but the storm did destroy or damage between 5 and 10 homes near the Pine Grove community. The timber industry saw a continued large loss of income due to trees blown down.

A tornado moved across heavily wooded areas south of Newton, damaging several homes before weakening near the high school.

A tornado formed near Holly Springs near Highway 190, just before it entered Newton County. Trees and power lines were blown down.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:39 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:28 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.

Jasper County-Bell Field Airport (JAS), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:55 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.

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

47 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.