EF0 tornado, Kingsville Arpt, Texas, April 17, 2010

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

April 17, 2010

Touchdown

5:15 PM CDT (22:15 UTC)

Lifted

5:16 PM CDT (22:16 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Kleberg County

Touchdown point

27.521, -97.968

Lift-off point

27.514, -97.968

Record number

1004171615-01

On the heals of the Friday April 16th system, another upper trough approached the Rio Grande Valley Friday night within a stronger wind flow aloft. Moisture levels were slightly lower early Saturday but the large scale lift with the approaching disturbance and cooler air aloft allowed for showers to develop after midnight Friday night across interior sections of South Texas. The rain became locally heavy, again, on the west side of Choke Canyon Reservoir. Localized rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches occurred bringing 2 day totals of 12 to 18 inches. Partial sunshine allowed for sufficient heating across the Coastal Bend on the morning of the 17th and low level speed convergence was present early in the morning. Instability values peaked on Saturday with surface-based CAPE of 2500 to 3000 J/KG. A weak surface boundary reflection of the upper level trough axis entered the Coastal Plains by early afternoon and thunderstorms became numerous. At the same time a weak sea breeze shifted slightly inland over the western portions of Kleberg and Nueces Counties. Increased upper level winds shifted from west to northwest with the arrival of a stronger upper level trough helped organize the thunderstorms which had developed in the very unstable air mass. By mid afternoon, a line of thunderstorms slowly moved through Jim Wells and Kleberg Counties producing a quick 2 to 5 inches of rain, significant cloud to ground lightning, and a weak EF-0 tornado on the King Ranch. The heavy rain resulted in additional flooding to parts of Jim Wells County which had already received significant rainfall during the week.

A trained spotter reported a tornado touched down on the King Ranch, south of Hwy 141 and roughly 4 miles west of the main entrance to the ranch. The tornado was on the ground for roughly 1/2 mile as it moved south, producing EF-0 damage. Minor damage of roofing tin along with twisted mesquite trees were reported by the King Ranch. Winds were estimated between 70 and 80 mph.

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

58 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:17 UTC, 58 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 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 19:22 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.

Kingsville Nas (NQI), 16 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), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:13 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 2010 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

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.