Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2008

EF0 tornado, Poth, Texas, July 24, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Wilson County on July 24, 2008, touching down at 8:12 AM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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
July 24, 2008
Touchdown
8:12 AM CDT (13:12 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Wilson County
Touchdown point
29.016, -98.039
Lift-off point
29.016, -98.039
Record number
0807240712-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Hurricane Dolly made landfall on South Padre Island on the afternoon of July 23. On the morning of the 24th, the center of Dolly was located near Laredo and had weakened to tropical storm strength. An outer rain band from the storm moved through South Central Texas and caused damage in Bexar County.

The Wilson County sheriff reported a tornado along CR202W which twisted an oak tree, lifted a car port, and damaged some gutters outside of Poth.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:04 UTC and running to 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:04 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WatchEWX
14:52 UTC15:12 UTCTornado WarningEWX
15:14 UTC16:00 UTCTornado WarningEWX
17:28 UTC20:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryEWX
21:03 UTC23:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryEWX
22:38 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningEWX

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:52 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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

1.2 hours before the tornado, 158 km from the path. July 24, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-07-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 373 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 756 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-07-24The 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 11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
373 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
859 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
756 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

10.8 hours after it, 158 km from the path. July 25, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-07-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3509 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 553 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-07-25The 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 58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.193958Sfc1 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
3509 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4699 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
553 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:57 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
13:12 UTCTORNADO6 Sse PothWilson, TXWILSON COUNTY SO RECEIVED A CALL REPORTING A TORNADO ALONG CR202W WHICH TWISTED AN OAK TREE...LIFTED A CAR PORT AND DAMAGED SOME GUTTERS.
14:11 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Sse San AntonioBexar, TXTREES DOWN AND ROOF DAMAGE
14:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S San AntonioBexar, TXTREES BLOWN DOWN AND ROOF DAMAGE
14:20 UTCTORNADO2 S San AntonioBexar, TX.25 MILE TRACK 30 YDS WIDE RUNNING SE NW...EST 80 MPH WINDS...TREES DOWN AND ROOF DAMAGE
14:59 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Sse San AntonioBexar, TXTREES DOWN AND ROOF DAMAGE

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

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 July 24, 2008

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 249:20 AM CDTEF0Bexar, TX0.330$800,000
July 2411:30 AM EDTEF2Rockingham, NH50.588012$2.0 million
July 246:20 PM CDTEF0Mahnomen, MN1.025

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.