F2 tornado, Uvalde, Texas, March 19, 2006

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 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

March 19, 2006

Touchdown

10:20 PM CST (04:20 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.5 million

County

Uvalde County

Touchdown point

29.220, -99.720

Lift-off point

29.220, -99.680

Record number

161

The most severe level of damage was located approximately 5 miles to the east of the Uvalde airport along Agape Road. This was due to a combination of both severe thunderstorm winds and a strong tornado. The wind damage, which had ended just south of Uvalde, once again was observed beginning just west of the Agape area by the team. The damage continued toward the east nearly one quarter mile to the Agape compound. Roof damage was noted at the first buildings, along with widespread damage to trees. Continuing to the east, the team found a mobile home that had been completely destroyed with the debris deposited about 30 yards to the south. This was the first time damage had been thrown in any direction except to the east and is believed to be just east of the starting point of the tornado. About 50 yards further to the east, an asphalt road was observed to have chunks of the topping removed and tossed toward the southeast. Very nearby, a large three-story concrete and steel-beam gymnasium valued at one million dollars had been gutted by the storm. The windward, west side was not blown inward as would have occurred with severe thunderstorm winds. Instead, it was pulled outward. A 40-foot steel beam had been bolted in a dozen different places to the building. The beam was pulled from the building and thrown back 15 feet to the northwest. Although many of the supporting steel beams held, several were pulled away and tossed. Concrete blocks, filled solid with concrete in their construction, had been ripped out of the building and lay tossed and strewn over the area. Much of the wall structure was destroyed. Pieces of sheet metal were strewn to the east and southeast for nearly one half mile. Additional damage to vegetation stretched for another 2 miles east of the gymnasium. Some of this damage was clearly due to severe thunderstorm winds and some of the damage was due to the tornado. Based on the level of damage of the mobile home and the gymnasium, the tornado was rated F2. The path width was estimated at 50 yards and the path length was estimated at 2 miles. From the reports available, it is thought the tornado developed about 1020 pm CST and dissipated around 1025 pm CST. It is the strongest tornado in South Central Texas since the evening of October 12, 2001, when an F3 tornado struck Stonewall, and an F2 tornado struck Hondo.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:00 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:38 UTC and running to 10:00 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 00:59 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.

Uvalde/Garner_field_arpt (UVA), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Laughlin AFB radar (KDFX), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:21 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 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.