Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2005

F3 tornado, Crosby County, Texas, May 12, 2005

This F3 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Crosby County on May 12, 2005, touching down at 8:40 PM CDT and reaching 500 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $300,000 of property damage.

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 mph

    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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
May 12, 2005
Touchdown
8:40 PM CDT (01:40 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
500 yards (457 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$300,000
County
Crosby County
Touchdown point
33.580, -101.500
Lift-off point
33.650, -101.420
Record number
828

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:36 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:02 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
23:57 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
00:56 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
01:36 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningLUB
02:29 UTC03:15 UTCTornado WarningLUB
03:17 UTC04:15 UTCTornado WarningLUB
05:10 UTC05:42 UTCTornado WarningLUB

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 00:51 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

1.7 hours before the tornado, 181 km from the path. May 13, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2005-05-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 246 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 610 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2005-05-13The 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 142 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 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
246 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
610 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
142 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
174 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

10.3 hours after it, 181 km from the path. May 13, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2005-05-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 760 joules per kilogram, CIN -181, lifted condensation level 1589 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2005-05-13The 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 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
760 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-181 J/kg
Surface CAPE
545 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1589 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lubbock International Airport (LBB), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:53 UTC8060140° 26 kt321009.5
00:53 UTC7462130° 24 kt371008.8
01:16 UTC73.462.6130° 23 kt311009.5TS
01:53 UTC6862150° 11 kt1008.8TS
02:40 UTC71.660.870° 11 kt1010.8-RA
02:53 UTC7159110° 18 kt1010.2
03:00 UTC71.660.880° 18 kt1010.5
03:21 UTC73.460.890° 27 kt391010.5TS

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

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:38 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 May 12, 2005

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 124:30 PM CDTF0Lamb, TX0.140
May 125:04 PM CDTF0Hale, TX0.140
May 125:41 PM CDTF0Hale, TX0.250
May 126:13 PM CDTF2Floyd, TX1.51,000
May 126:24 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.5500
May 126:28 PM CDTF0Randall, TX0.125
May 128:55 PM CDTF2Crosby, TX4.5500$100,000
May 129:20 PM CDTF0Lubbock, TX0.250

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.