EF0 tornado, Gardendale to Texas A And I, Texas, March 18, 2008

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 18, 2008

Touchdown

2:40 PM CDT (19:40 UTC)

Lifted

3:00 PM CDT (20:00 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Nueces County

Touchdown point

27.688, -97.385

Lift-off point

27.695, -97.347

Record number

0803181340-01

A strong impulse in the base of a southern branch trough moved into South Texas during the late morning and early afternoon. As this happened an elevated mixed layer will advected north northeastward out of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and into the Coastal Bend. On the nose of this air mass a zone of enhanced low-level warm advection near confluence zone just to the west of a 60-70 kt southerly 850 jet streak became the focus for convective development across the Coastal Bend. Mixed layer capes of 1000-2000 J/KG, a large clockwise curved low-level hodograph, and strong deep layer shear combined to produce supercell, with a tornadic storm in the city of Corpus Christi.

A tornado touched down near the east side of the Country Club Estates subdivision at Staples St, and continued east across Wooldridge, through the intersection of Holly and Airline, and to Nile and S.P.I.D. (Hwy 358) where it dissipated. EF-0 damage occurred along the entire path with mainly fences and tree limbs damage. More notable damage was noted at the Saratoga Cove Apartments, Frost Bank, and a deluxe extended stay hotel, where fences were blown down, signs blown out, and minor shingle damage occurred.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:35 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:19 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.

Corpus Christi Nas (NGP), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:40 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.