Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2006

F0 tornado, Piney Pt, Texas, February 10, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Harris County on February 10, 2006, touching down at 4:30 PM CST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 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 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
February 10, 2006
Touchdown
4:30 PM CST (22:30 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
Harris County
Touchdown point
29.700, -95.520
Lift-off point
29.700, -95.520
Record number
55

What the Weather Service recorded

This tornado caused structural damage to an apartment complex at the intersection of Westheimer and Dunvale. The tornado was witnessed by a property maintenance worker. Damage consisted of an east facing apartment brick wall that collapsed into a lower brick wall. There was also very minor roof damage to the building.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 228 km from the path. February 10, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2006-02-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -87606, lifted condensation level 841 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2006-02-10The 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 363 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87606 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
841 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
363 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
414 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 228 km from the path. February 11, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2006-02-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 10 joules per kilogram, CIN -174, lifted condensation level 852 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2006-02-11The 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 333 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-174 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
852 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
333 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
380 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Houston/Hull Field (SGR), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:53 UTC7263190° 17 kt271009.8
21:53 UTC6058330° 16 kt241011.2+RA FG
22:53 UTC5856330° 15 kt211012.5
23:53 UTC5754360° 16 kt1014.2-RA

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:31 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
21:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGHoustonHarris, TXPUBLIC REPORT OF WIND DAMAGE TO AN APARTMENT COMPLEX LOCATED AT THE INTERSECTION OF WESTHEIMER AND DUNVALE.
22:30 UTCTORNADO2 S Piney Point VillageHarris, TXWEAK TORNADO CAUSED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO APARTMENT COMPLEX AT THE WESTHEIMER AND DUNVALE INTERSECTION. PROPERTY MAINTENANCE WORKER REPORTED WITNESSING TORNADO. DAMAGE WAS OF AN EAST-FACING APARTMENT BRICK WALL COLLAPSING
22:30 UTCTORNADO2 S Piney Point VillageHarris, TXWEAK TORNADO(F0)CAUSED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO APARTMENT COMPLEX AT THE WESTHEIMER AND DUNVALE INTERSECTION. PROPERTY MAINTENANCE WORKER REPORTED WITNESSING TORNADO. DAMAGE WAS OF AN EAST-FACING APARTMENT BRICK WALL COLLAPS
22:50 UTCTORNADOWebsterHarris, TXGUSTNADO DAMAGED LOCAL BUSINESS ON NASA ROAD 1 JUST EAST OF INTERSTATE 45. BUILDING WAS LOCATED IN A SMALL STRIP MALL AND DAMAGE WAS JUST CONFINED TO THIS TWO-STORY BUSINESS. DAMAGE INCLUDED A COMPLETE BLOWOUT OF 8 SOUTH

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

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.