Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2005
F3 tornado, Vera, Texas, May 13, 2005
This F3 tornado ran 16.3 miles across Knox and Baylor counties on May 13, 2005, touching down at 7:09 PM CDT and reaching 1,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 13, 2005
- Touchdown
- 7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)
- Path length
- 16.3 miles (26.2 km)
- Path width
- 1,000 yards (914 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Knox and Baylor counties
- Touchdown point
- 33.630, -99.630
- Lift-off point
- 33.470, -99.470
- Record number
- 770
What the Weather Service recorded
The tornado began in Knox County and traveled just over 16 miles, eventually moving into Baylor County for less than a half a mile before dissipating 3.3 miles SW of Bomarton. The storm was being seeded by precipitation from another supercell just to its southwest and the tornado was apparently rain-wrapped throughout its duration. However mobile research radars, Doppler on Wheels (DOW), were able to track this tornado. The initial path of the tornado was to the south-southwest crossing U.S. Highway 82. The tornado then generally moved to the southeast for the rest of its life. This tornado moved through sparsely populated areas with no reported damage. Preliminary analysis of data from the Doppler On Wheels indicated a maximum wind velocity of 79 m/s (about 177 mph) at 30 m above ground level which was measured at 1829 CST when the tornado was in open country about 6 miles south of Vera.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:53 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 23:26 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 00:13 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
| 00:15 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 00:40 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | OUN |
| 01:13 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN |
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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 21:42 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 surface observations
Vernon (F05), 79 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:25 UTC | 78.8 | 62.6 | 150° 10 kt | 1009.1 | ||
| 22:45 UTC | 78.8 | 62.6 | 150° 15 kt | 1008.5 | ||
| 23:05 UTC | 77 | 64.4 | 130° 11 kt | 1008.5 | VCTS | |
| 23:25 UTC | 77 | 64.4 | 160° 10 kt | 18 | 1009.1 | VCTS |
| 23:45 UTC | 77 | 64.4 | 150° 13 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 00:05 UTC | 77 | 64.4 | 140° 10 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 00:25 UTC | 73.4 | 64.4 | 100° 12 kt | 1009.1 | TS | |
| 00:45 UTC | 73.4 | 64.4 | 130° 14 kt | 19 | 1009.5 | |
| 01:05 UTC | 73.4 | 64.4 | 70° 11 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 01:25 UTC | 69.8 | 60.8 | 50° 10 kt | 1010.8 | VCTS | |
| 01:45 UTC | 69.8 | 60.8 | 70° 9 kt | 1010.8 | VCTS | |
| 02:05 UTC | 69.8 | 62.6 | 70° 7 kt | 1011.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:08 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 13, 2005
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.