EF0 tornado, Melvin to Brady Res, Texas, May 14, 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

May 14, 2008

Touchdown

6:07 PM CDT (23:07 UTC)

Lifted

6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

McCulloch County

Touchdown point

31.200, -99.580

Lift-off point

31.200, -99.580

Record number

0805141707-01

A frontal boundary draped across West Central Texas, combined with an upper level storm system approaching from the west and a surface dryline triggered thunderstorms across the western Concho Valley and Big Country. As one supercell tracked east into Nolan county, storm spotters reported brief tornadoes. This storm continued east dropping hail the size of golf balls. Baseball size hail was reproted just southeast of Abilene near the town of Potosi. This storm continued to produce baseball size hail as it continued east into Callahan county. Another supercell developed just west of San Angelo dropping quarter size hail in Knickerbocker and at San Angelo Mathis Field. As this storm moved east, hail increased to golf ball size across Concho County. Wind gusts to 69 mph were recorded at the Brady Airport before equipment lost power. There was widespread tree and power line damage in Brady. A National Weather Service Storm Survey revealed an EF0 tornado caused damage to storage buildings, trees, and vegetation on the southeast side of Brady Lake.

A brief tornado was reported about a quarter mile east of Melvin.

A storm survey revealed that a tornado with winds between 65 and 85 mph caused damage to storage buildings, a marina, trees, and other vegetation along the southeast side of Brady Lake.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:52 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:51 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Brady (BBD), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The San Angelo radar (KSJT), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:08 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

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

11 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.