F1 tornado, Manor, Texas, March 25, 2005

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 mphthis tornado

   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

F1

Date

March 25, 2005

Touchdown

9:50 PM CST (03:50 UTC)

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Travis County

Touchdown point

30.300, -97.500

Lift-off point

30.270, -97.470

Record number

632

An NWS survey showed that the general area from near the town of Manor, across the community of Littig, to approximately 4 miles southwest of Elgin had been struck by a combination of severe thunderstorm winds, rain and hail. In addition, a narrow corridor of spotty and more intense damage to homes, trees and buildings suggested that a tornado had struck near 9:50 pm on Balderstadt Road about 1 mile northwest of Littig. The conclusion was supported by the fact that debris in a small confined area of homes as well as mobile homes and outbuildings was scattered in all four cardinal directions, indicating it could not have been part of a downburst. The path length in this touchdown would have been less than a quarter mile. The damage was rated F0.From that point eastward, through the community of Littig to near Elgin, the damage was general widespread and had been laid down in a single direction toward the east. This was the same direction in which the supercell storm was moving. However, damage in the east part of Littig was again concentrated with the debris laid down in many different directions. Many of the Littig residents reported that the high winds struck and then was followed by the "sound of a freight train." One resident reported that his ears popped just in advance of the worst damage. These reports, along with the shape and nature of damage indicated that part of the damage in the east section of Littig was due to a second touchdown of the same tornado. This location would be about 1 mile east of the first touchdown. The time of the strike is estimated as 2156 CST. The tornado continued on the ground for approximately one half mile where it struck a mobile home along its side, rolled it into a second mobile home, destroying the first mobile home. Evidence showed that the first mobile home had actually been tied down with straps, but that the straps had not prevented it being moved. The straps were still in place and anchored in spite of the fact that the mobile home was gone. Remnants of the first mobile home appear to have prevented major damage to the second mobile home. This damage was rated as F1. In all, it was miraculous that so many large pieces of tin, wood and metal had been ripped from homes and structures and thrown around the area, driven into the ground, wrapped around trees and poles, and yet not a single injury.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:41 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:08 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:52 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 live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.