Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2008

EF0 tornado, La Marque, Texas, February 16, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Galveston County on February 16, 2008, touching down at 9:35 PM CST and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
February 16, 2008
Touchdown
9:35 PM CST (03:35 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Galveston County
Touchdown point
29.370, -94.990
Lift-off point
29.370, -94.990
Record number
0802162135-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms became better organized and formed a coastal county squall line.

Tornado was spotted from 1700 Main Street in La Marque.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Houston/Galveston, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Feb 16, 8:56 PM CST, 39 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 16, 8:56 PM CST, 39 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Feb 16, 4:59 AM CST, 16 hours 36 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
459 AM CST SAT FEB 16 2008

GMZ330-335-TXZ163-164-176>179-195>200-210>214-226-227-235>238-
171100-
AUSTIN-BRAZORIA-BRAZOS-BURLESON-CHAMBERS-COLORADO-FORT BEND-
GALVESTON-GALVESTON BAY-GRIMES-HARRIS-HOUSTON-JACKSON-LIBERTY-
MADISON-MATAGORDA-MATAGORDA BAY-MONTGOMERY-POLK-SAN JACINTO-
TRINITY-WALKER-WALLER-WASHINGTON-WHARTON-
459 AM CST SAT FEB 16 2008

...SIGNIFICANT THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER ACROSS ALL OF SOUTHEAST
TEXAS LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT
AN APPROACHING UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL COMBINE WITH A VERY
MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIRMASS TO PRODUCE NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS. STRONG SHEAR IN THE LOWER LEVELS OF THE ATMOSPHERE
WILL SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUPERCELLS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES
DURING THE LATE AFTERNOON THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. IN ADDITION TO
TORNADOES...FREQUENT LIGHTNING... LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS
WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE.

A SQUALL LINE WILL DEVELOP OVER CENTRAL TEXAS DURING THE AFTERNOON...
AND MOVE EAST ACROSS THE AREA DURING THE LATE AFTERNOON AND
EVENING HOURS. DISCREET SUPERCELLS AHEAD OF THE MAIN SQUALL LINE
COULD PRODUCE TORNADOES LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. STORMS
EMBEDDED IN THE SQUALL LINE WILL LIKELY PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND
GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH...HAIL...FREQUENT LIGHTNING AND BRIEF
HEAVY RAINFALL.

THROUGH TONIGHT...WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES
ARE EXPECTED...WITH ISOLATED TOTALS BETWEEN 3 AND 4 INCHES ALSO
POSSIBLE. THE STORMS WILL BE MOVING AT A QUICK PACE SO HEAVY RAIN
WILL PRODUCE ONLY LOCALIZED FLOODING OF LOW LYING AREA AND OTHER
POORLY DRAINED AREAS.

AT THIS TIME...IT APPEARS THAT THE SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL
BEGIN BETWEEN 2 AND 5 PM WEST OF A VICTORIA TO MADISONVILLE LINE.
THE HAZARDOUS WEATHER WILL SPREAD EAST AND AFFECT THE HOUSTON
METROPOLITAN AREA BETWEEN 5 AND 8 PM AND AREAS ALONG THE COAST
BETWEEN 8 AND 11 PM. THE THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER WITH THIS
EVENT WILL BE GREATER THAN THE AREA HAS SEEN DURING RECENT EVENTS.

RESIDENTS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS ARE ENCOURAGED TO STAY ABREAST OF THE
RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS ON SATURDAY. IF OUTDOORS...KEEP
AN EYE ON THE SKY. MONITOR NOAA WEATHER RADIO...NEWS MEDIA...
INTERNET...AND OTHER WEATHER INFORMATION SOURCES. BE PREPARED TO
ACT QUICKLY IF SEVERE TORNADOES OR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THREATEN
YOUR AREA.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND SPOTTER ACTIVATION ARE LIKELY LATER THIS
AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Feb 16, 6:08 PM CST, 3 hours 27 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
608 PM CST SAT FEB 16 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0549 PM     HAIL             1 NE CROCKETT           31.33N 95.44W
02/16/2008  E0.75 INCH       HOUSTON            TX   EMERGENCY MNGR

0536 PM     HAIL             CROCKETT                31.32N 95.46W
02/16/2008  E1.00 INCH       HOUSTON            TX   EMERGENCY MNGR

&&

BLOOD

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), 00:00Z

3.6 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. February 17, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2008-02-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 188 joules per kilogram, CIN -263, lifted condensation level 634 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 2008-02-17The 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 354 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
188 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-263 J/kg
Surface CAPE
30 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
634 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
354 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
445 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Galveston/Scholes (GLS), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:34 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 2008 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 16, 2008

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 166:30 AM CSTEF1Pointe Coupee Parish, LA2.540$150,000
February 169:40 PM CSTEF1Sabine, TX0.3100$50,000

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.