Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2005

F0 tornado, Marathon, Texas, June 10, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Brewster County on June 10, 2005, touching down at 4:18 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.

  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 10, 2005
Touchdown
4:18 PM CDT (21:18 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Brewster County
Touchdown point
30.200, -102.780
Lift-off point
30.200, -102.770
Record number
177

What the Weather Service recorded

Just twenty-four hours after an isolated tornadic supercell affected much of the Lower Trans Pecos region of west Texas, a second classic supercell produced large hail and a tornado in the same general vicinity. Large hail up to the size of quarters fell on several ranches in southern Pecos County during the afternoon of the 10th. A tornado struck the Longfellow Ranch in northeastern Brewster County, destroying numerous large trees.

A rancher discovered tornado damage on his property in far northeastern Brewster County, just north of U.S. Highway 90. A relatively long and narrow swath of tornadic winds were evident in several groves of trees on the Longfellow Ranch. A stand of oak trees, many four inches in diameter, were snapped at the lower portions of the trunk. No damage to man made structures occurred as a result of the tornado.

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

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:00 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:17 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningMAF
21:00 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningMAF

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 202 km from the path. June 10, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2005-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3111 joules per kilogram, CIN -109, lifted condensation level 738 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2005-06-10The 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 145 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
3111 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-109 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3448 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
738 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 202 km from the path. June 11, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2005-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1940 joules per kilogram, CIN -180, lifted condensation level 1356 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2005-06-11The 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 1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
1940 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-180 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3611 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1356 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 202 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:16 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
20:00 UTCHAIL 137 S Fort StocktonPecos, TXHAIL LASTED TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES BETWEEN 300 PM CDT THROUGH 325 PM CDT.

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 June 10, 2005

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 102:03 PM CDTF0Marathon, WI0.120
June 104:05 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120
June 104:10 PM CDTF0Waupaca, WI0.120
June 104:50 PM MDTF0Baca, CO2.0100$10,000
June 105:00 PM MDTF0Baca, CO1.0100$10,000
June 106:34 PM CDTF0Stearns, MN1.025
June 106:45 PM CDTF0Stearns, MN0.120
June 106:51 PM CDTF0Stearns, MN0.220
June 107:20 PM CDTF0Stearns, MN0.120
June 108:10 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120
June 108:22 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120
June 108:48 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120

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.