Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2008

EF1 tornado, Winnsboro, Texas, May 14, 2008

This EF1 tornado ran 3.2 miles across Franklin County on May 14, 2008, touching down at 12:50 AM CDT and reaching 100 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 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
May 14, 2008
Touchdown
12:50 AM CDT (05:50 UTC)
Lifted
1:00 AM CDT (06:00 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
3.2 miles (5.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Franklin County
Touchdown point
32.972, -95.307
Lift-off point
32.967, -95.252
Record number
0805142350-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Excessive heavy rainfall developed across southwest Arkansas during the overnight and pre dawn hours of May 14th. This rainfall developed due to a very moist airmass in place across the Lower Mississippi Valley and a slow moving upper level low pressure system that moved eastward into the region from Texas. During the late night hours of May 14th...a significant bow echo event developed across portions of northeast Texas...producing straight line winds approaching 100 mph along with a tornado near the community of Winnsboro, Texas.

An EF1 tornado track started across the northern portion of the town of Winnsboro, Texas along Hwy 11 and tracks eastward crossing Greenwood Street where a mobile home sustained minor damage. The tornado appears to have been a bookend tornado which formed along the northern end of a significant straight line wind event which affected more of the city of Winnsboro, Texas itself.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:49 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:49 UTC06:15 UTCTornado WarningSHV
06:16 UTC06:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
12:00 UTC15:14 UTCFlood WarningSHV

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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

5.8 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. May 15, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA 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 0 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 0 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Shreveport, LA 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 198 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
195 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
0 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
231 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

6.2 hours after it, 153 km from the path. May 15, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA 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 -56203, lifted condensation level 1005 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Shreveport, LA 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 103 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
-56203 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1005 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
103 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:49 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
05:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGWinnsboroWood, TXSTRAIGHT LINE WINDS OF 90 TO 100 MPH THAT OCCURREDFROM APPROXIMATELY 1250 AM. NUMEROUS HOUSES WERE DAMAGED THROUGHOUT WINNSBORO AND SURROUNDING AREAS FROM FALLING TREES. SOME OF THEM SEVERELY DAMAGED. AND AS A RESULT OF
05:50 UTCTORNADO1 Nw WinnsboroFranklin, TXAN EF1 TORNADO TRACK OCCURRED ON THE NORTHWEST SIDE OF WINNSBORO ALONG HWY 11 AND TRACKED EASTWARD CROSSING GREENWOOD STREET WHERE A MOBILE HOME SUSTAINED MINOR DAMAGE. THE TORNADO CONTINUED EASTWARD CROSSING HWY 37 WHER
06:09 UTCTSTM WND DMGWinnsboroWood, TXNUMEROUS POWER LINES AND TREES DOWN.
06:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne GilmerUpshur, TXNUMEROUS TREES DOWN.

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 148:30 PM CDTEF0Erath, TX0.330

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.