Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2008

EF0 tornado, Dublin to Dublin Comm Arpt, Texas, May 14, 2008

From Dublin to Dublin Comm Arpt, this EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Erath County on May 14, 2008, touching down at 8:30 PM CDT and reaching 30 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
May 14, 2008
Touchdown
8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)
Lifted
8:31 PM CDT (01:31 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Erath County
Touchdown point
32.059, -98.361
Lift-off point
32.057, -98.358
Record number
0805141930-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A deep slow-moving upper level trough moved from the desert southwest into west Texas during this period. Several shortwaves combined with surface boundaries to produce several rounds of storms. Downbursts as well as large hail were reported in addition to flash flooding.

A storm spotter saw a tornado touchdown about 2.5 miles south of Dublin on CR 338. The tornado remained on the ground for 22 seconds and no damage was reported.

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

The warnings

9 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:21 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:50 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:50 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WatchFWD
01:21 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningFWD
01:54 UTC02:13 UTCTornado WarningFWD

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 01:02 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

1.5 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. May 15, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 726 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 843 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-05-15The 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 42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
726 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1225 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
843 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

10.5 hours after it, 132 km from the path. May 15, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 478 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-05-15The 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 15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
478 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Stephenville/Clark (SEP), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:45 UTC73.464.460° 5 kt1008.8
00:05 UTC71.664.490° 6 kt1008.1
00:25 UTC71.664.4100° 9 kt1007.5
00:45 UTC71.664.410° 4 kt1008.8
01:05 UTC71.664.420° 6 kt1008.5
01:25 UTC71.664.4110° 9 kt1008.5
01:45 UTC71.664.4350° 6 kt1009.8
02:05 UTC71.666.20° 0 kt1009.1
02:25 UTC69.866.20° 0 kt1010.5
02:45 UTC69.866.2350° 9 kt1010.8
03:05 UTC69.866.210° 7 kt1010.8
03:25 UTC69.866.220° 8 kt1010.8

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

The radar

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:30 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
00:49 UTCHAIL 0.88Rising StarEastland, TXNEAR RISING STAR
01:07 UTCHAIL 1.759 W De LeonComanche, TXNEAR SIPE SPRINGS COMMUNITY
01:16 UTCTSTM WND GST 606 N ComancheComanche, TXFROM COMANCHE CO. SHERIFFS OFFICE
01:22 UTCHAIL 26 Ne ComancheComanche, TXRELAYED BY HAMS
02:08 UTCHAIL 0.75CarltonHamilton, TX
02:12 UTCHAIL 1.52 Ese CarltonHamilton, TX

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 May 14, 2008

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 145:10 AM CDTEF0Burnet, TX0.330$10,000
May 149:30 AM CDTEF1Rusk, TX4.3300$200,000
May 143:15 PM CDTEF0Yoakum, TX1.975
May 144:02 PM CDTEF0Lubbock, TX0.2100$100,000
May 145:05 PM CDTEF0Mitchell, TX2.150
May 145:35 PM CDTEF0Nolan, TX0.150
May 145:53 PM CDTEF0Nolan, TX0.150
May 146:07 PM CDTEF0McCulloch, TX0.150
May 146:16 PM CDTEF0McCulloch, TX1.085$250,000
May 148:25 PM CDTEF0Burnet, TX0.110
May 1412:50 AM CDTEF1Franklin, TX3.2100$10,000

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.