F0 tornado, Magnolia Beach to Palo Alto Beach, Texas, October 16, 2006

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.

Rating

F0

Date

October 16, 2006

Touchdown

4:00 AM CDT (09:00 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Calhoun County

Touchdown point

28.660, -96.450

Lift-off point

28.670, -96.450

Record number

964

A low top thunderstorm moving rapidly south to north produced a brief tornado in Magnolia Beach. The storm continued across Matagorda Bay and back into Calhoun County, near Olivia, producing another tornado.

Tornado formed just south of Magnolia Beach, near C.R. 2760 and Highway 316. The tornado moved quickly north into northwest Magnolia Beach. Damage was primarily observed along La Lucia Street. Roughly 12 homes received damage, 2 of which suffered major damage and loss of roofs. Three trapped residents had to be rescued from their homes, however no injuries were reported. Approximately 6 power poles were downed and several cars were damaged. Some trees were completely stripped of foliage and limbs.|

Storm which produced a brief tornado over the Magnolia Beach area continued north across Matagorda Bay and back into Calhoun County, producing another tornado near Olivia. Damage was primarily observed around C.R. 311, where a trampoline was ripped apart and left hanging on a utility pole guide wire, a boat was overturned on top of a truck, and windows were blown out of another truck and mobile home.|

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

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 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 05:28 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 Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:01 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

24 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.