Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2005
F0 tornado, Bruni, Texas, July 20, 2005
This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Webb County on July 20, 2005, touching down at 12:20 PM CDT and reaching 100 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- July 20, 2005
- Touchdown
- 12:20 PM CDT (17:20 UTC)
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Webb County
- Touchdown point
- 27.420, -98.820
- Lift-off point
- 27.400, -98.850
- Record number
- 1046
What the Weather Service recorded
A NWS Storm survey concluded a tornado, in the outer rainbands of Hurricane Emily, formed approximately 2 miles east of Bruni, about 1/2 mile north of Highway 359. The tornado moved southwest for about 1/2 to 1 mile, crossing Highway 359, then dissipated. Damage was mostly limited to broken mesquite trees and damage to fences. There was also some corrugated roofing sheet metal that was lifted from a pile and strewn about. A truck camper shell was also lifted from the ground and deposited 500 yards away, along the line of travel.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:16 UTC | 19:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | CRP |
| 19:57 UTC | 20:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | CRP |
| 20:59 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | CRP |
| 22:13 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | CRP |
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 15:57 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
5.3 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. July 20, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1529 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2038 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 798 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 122 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 124 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z
6.7 hours after it, 152 km from the path. July 21, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2913 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2749 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 745 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 56 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 83 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 2.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.6 K/km
The surface observations
Hebbronville (HBV), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:44 UTC | 75.2 | 75.2 | 100° 13 kt | 20 | 1013.5 | RA |
| 15:45 UTC | 75.2 | 73.4 | 100° 13 kt | 20 | 1013.5 | RA |
| 16:05 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 40° 14 kt | 20 | 1013.5 | |
| 16:25 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 40° 13 kt | 1013.5 | ||
| 16:45 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 50° 14 kt | 22 | 1013.9 | |
| 17:05 UTC | 78.8 | 73.4 | 40° 16 kt | 21 | 1013.9 | VCTS |
| 17:25 UTC | 78.8 | 73.4 | 50° 14 kt | 1013.9 | ||
| 17:45 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 60° 9 kt | 15 | 1013.9 | +VCTSRA |
| 18:05 UTC | 77 | 73.4 | 70° 10 kt | 16 | 1014.2 | |
| 18:25 UTC | 77 | 73.4 | 40° 9 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 18:45 UTC | 78.8 | 73.4 | 40° 8 kt | 1013.9 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 137 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:20 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:39 UTC | TORNADO | 25 Nne Zapata | Zapata, TX | SHERIFF RELAYED PUBLIC REPORT OF TORNADO IN NORTHERN ZAPATA COUNTY. |
| 18:25 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Oilton | Webb, TX | SEVERAL FUNNEL CLOUDS REPORTED |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 20, 2005
11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 20 | 7:35 AM CDT | F0 | Cameron, TX | 0.2 | 30 | $30,000 | ||
| July 20 | 9:31 AM CDT | F0 | Jim Wells, TX | 7.0 | 100 | |||
| July 20 | 10:35 AM CDT | F0 | Jim Wells, TX | 3.0 | 100 | |||
| July 20 | 10:39 AM CDT | F0 | Zapata, TX | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| July 20 | 10:41 AM CDT | F0 | Live Oak, TX | 1.0 | 100 | |||
| July 20 | 11:20 AM CDT | F0 | San Patricio, TX | 1.0 | 100 | |||
| July 20 | 11:30 AM CDT | F1 | Jim Wells, TX | 12.0 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| July 20 | 11:40 AM CDT | F0 | Hidalgo, TX | 0.2 | 20 | |||
| July 20 | 2:05 PM CDT | F0 | Hidalgo, TX | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| July 20 | 2:30 PM CDT | F0 | Jim Hogg, TX | 2.0 | 30 | |||
| July 20 | 6:05 PM EDT | F0 | Pinellas, FL | 0.7 | 75 | $440,000 |
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.