Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2005

F0 tornado, Comfort, Texas, June 1, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Kendall County on June 1, 2005, touching down at 3:04 AM CDT and reaching 30 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.

  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
June 1, 2005
Touchdown
3:04 AM CDT (08:04 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kendall County
Touchdown point
29.920, -98.920
Lift-off point
29.920, -98.920
Record number
122

What the Weather Service recorded

An NWS survey found evidence of a tornado that struck at the southeast end of the wind damage area in Kendall County, about one mile south of the Waring exit off IH10. Trees at one home in this area again showed severe damage with many broken off above the ground and others blown over. However in this one case the tree limbs and trees were not oriented toward the southeast but instead were generally laid down in all different directions. The home within 50 yards of the damage area suffered no damage at all. This change in orientation, along with the very narrow area, the well defined nature of the path, and stronger level of damage, led the team to conclude that the damage was caused by a small and short-lived tornado. The tornado was rated as F0.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:01 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:32 UTC08:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
08:01 UTC08:30 UTCTornado WarningEWX
08:25 UTC11:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningEWX

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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:57 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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

8.1 hours before the tornado, 195 km from the path. June 1, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2005-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3659 joules per kilogram, CIN -23, lifted condensation level 1496 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2005-06-01The 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 3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
3659 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-23 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3701 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1496 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 195 km from the path. June 1, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2005-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1146 joules per kilogram, CIN -123, lifted condensation level 1081 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2005-06-01The 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 151 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1146 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-123 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2076 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1081 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
395 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
17.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Kerrville Municipal (ERV), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
06:05 UTC73.464.490° 7 kt1010.2
06:25 UTC71.666.2150° 5 kt1009.8TS
06:45 UTC73.468100° 8 kt1009.1
07:05 UTC73.468130° 8 kt1008.8
07:44 UTC60.85910° 22 kt451010.5+TSRA
08:04 UTC60.859250° 3 kt1012.2
08:05 UTC60.859240° 3 kt1012.2TS
08:25 UTC60.8590° 0 kt1011.9TSRA
08:45 UTC60.859240° 4 kt1012.9-TSRA
09:05 UTC60.859300° 3 kt1011.9TSRA
09:25 UTC62.660.80° 0 kt1011.5TSRA
09:45 UTC60.860.880° 11 kt1009.1-TSRA

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

The radar

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:03 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 2005 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 1, 2005

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 111:03 AM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.140$10,000
June 111:15 AM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.240$30,000
June 11:17 PM MDTF0Big Horn, WY4.030
June 11:38 PM MDTF0Big Horn, WY4.030
June 11:40 PM MDTF0Big Horn, WY10.020
June 12:45 PM CDTF0Wagoner, OK0.130
June 17:33 PM MDTF1Hettinger, ND11.070
June 17:53 PM MDTF1Hettinger, ND16.070
June 18:45 PM MDTF1Stark, ND4.050

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.