F0 tornado, Zapata, Texas, July 20, 2005

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.

Rating

F0

Date

July 20, 2005

Touchdown

10:39 AM CDT (15:39 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Zapata County

Touchdown point

27.230, -99.080

Lift-off point

27.230, -99.080

Record number

1161

Emily formed as the 5th tropical depression of the 2005 Atlantic Season at 10 pm CDT Sunday July 10th, 2005. Tropical Depression 5 became the 5th Tropical Storm at 10 pm CDT Sunday July 10th, 2005. Emily then went on to become a hurricane at 10 pm July 13th and then proceeded to become a Category 3 storm at 4 pm July 14th in the Caribbean Sea. Emily then reached Category 4 strength at 1 am CDT July 15th and made landfall along the Yucatan peninsula during the early morning of July 18th. Emily re-emerged off the Yucatan peninsula and regained category 3 strength in the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico at 6 pm CDT July 19th. Emily then proceeded to make landfall along the northeast coast of Mexico early in the morning on July 20th 2005.Emily produced heavy rains over south Texas with storm total rainfall amounts generally ranging between 1.5 and 5 inches. Storm tides (including astronomical tide, storm surge, and wind-driven waves) caused minor to moderate flooding along the lower Texas coast from the port mansfield jetties southward to the Rio Grande.Sea water washed over the State Road 100, approximately 4 to 6 miles north of the South Padre Island City limits, where only the beach and natural sand dunes exist. The building of additional burms along the beaches and dunes did prevent much of the sea water from flooding within the City of South Padre Island.Only minimal and isolated damage was reported from local law enforcement agencies and county emergency operation centers. Damage consisted of isolated structural damage to buildings from tropical storm force winds. Several trees were uprooted or damaged and were consistent with the reported observed wind speeds. Emily produced five confirmed tornadoes over Deep South Texas, and isolated flash flooding, primarily over Hidalgo County.

Short-lived tornado was relayed by Zapata County Sheriff's Office. Tornado occurred over open ranch land. No damage reported.

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

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.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:43 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.

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 167 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:36 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.