Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2010
EF0 tornado, Lagarteo, Texas, May 25, 2010
This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Live Oak County on May 25, 2010, touching down at 11:30 AM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 25, 2010
- Touchdown
- 11:30 AM CDT (16:30 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:31 AM CDT (16:31 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- County
- Live Oak County
- Touchdown point
- 28.071, -98.017
- Lift-off point
- 28.073, -98.016
- Record number
- 1005251030-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe storms during the afternoon of the 25th produced flash flooding, wind damage and one tornado across portions of the inland Coastal Bend.
An NWS Storm Survey concluded a brief EF-0 tornado touched down on a ranch in extreme southern Live Oak County. Damage to deer pins and metal animal shelters and awnings occurred. Limbs were sheared off some smaller trees and one large mesquite tree was broken in half. One awning and one deer were carried 50 yards over fences and deposited in a separate pin. Two deer sustained minor injuries. Winds were estimated around 70 mph. A Davis Weather Instrument on-site measured a peak wind gust of 72 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:38 UTC | 14:20 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CRP |
| 16:54 UTC | 18:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | CRP |
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.
Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z
4.5 hours before the tornado, 77 km from the path. May 25, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2458 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3428 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 491 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 44 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 69 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 5.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z
7.5 hours after it, 77 km from the path. May 26, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1240 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2301 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 678 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -7 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 70 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
The surface observations
Orange Grove (NOG), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:53 UTC | 79 | 76 | 140° 9 kt | 17 | 1011.5 | |
| 15:53 UTC | 79 | 75 | 140° 8 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS | |
| 16:53 UTC | 69 | 68 | 20° 6 kt | 1012.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 17:53 UTC | 69 | 67 | 50° 19 kt | 31 | 1013.5 | -TSRA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:30 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:30 UTC | TSTM WND GST 72 | 10 Nnw Orange Grove | Live Oak, TX | DAVIS INSTRUMENT MEASURED GUST. SEVERAL LARGE TREES DOWN AND NUMEROUS BRANCHES. END OF FARM ROAD 308. |
| 16:30 UTC | TSTM WND GST 72 | 3 Nw Orange Grove | Jim Wells, TX | DAVIS INSTRUMENT MEASURED GUST. SEVERAL LARGE TREES DOWN AND NUMEROUS BRANCHES. END OF FARM ROAD 308. |
| 16:30 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 10 Nnw Orange Grove | Live Oak, TX | STORM SURVEY INDICATED A BRIEF EF0 TORNADO TOUCHDOWN ON A RANCH IN EXTREME SOUTHERN LIVE OAK COUNTY. DAMAGE TO DEER PINS AND METAL ANIMAL SHELTER/AWNINGS OCCURRED WITH LIMBS SHEARED OFF SOME SMALLER TREES AND ONE LARGE M |
| 17:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mathis | San Patricio, TX | 12 INCH TREE DOWNS. AT LEAST ONE FROM LIGHTNING AND OTHERS FROM WIND. |
| 18:30 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 3.7 | Orange Grove | Jim Wells, TX | WATER ON ROADS UP TO SEVERAL INCHES. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 25, 2010
29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 25 | 2:10 PM CDT | EF0 | Peoria, IL | 0.7 | 15 | |||
| May 25 | 3:13 PM MDT | EF0 | Roosevelt, NM | 0.3 | 10 | |||
| May 25 | 3:31 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.0 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 3:31 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.1 | 75 | |||
| May 25 | 3:32 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.1 | 75 | |||
| May 25 | 3:37 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.4 | 100 | |||
| May 25 | 3:41 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 3:48 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 3:48 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 3:55 PM MDT | EF0 | Curry, NM | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 25 | 3:55 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.3 | 75 | |||
| May 25 | 3:56 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 3:56 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 4:07 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 1.2 | 75 | |||
| May 25 | 4:18 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 5:17 PM MDT | EF0 | Greeley, KS | 0.8 | 10 | |||
| May 25 | 5:20 PM MDT | EF0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 5:49 PM MDT | EF0 | Greeley, KS | 0.6 | 25 | |||
| May 25 | 7:52 PM CDT | EF0 | Castro, TX | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 25 | 8:06 PM CDT | EF0 | Gove, KS | 0.3 | 10 | |||
| May 25 | 8:11 PM CDT | EF0 | Castro, TX | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| May 25 | 8:14 PM CDT | EF0 | Castro, TX | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| May 25 | 8:14 PM CDT | EF0 | Gove, KS | 4.8 | 75 | |||
| May 25 | 8:26 PM CDT | EF1 | Gove, KS | 21.3 | 75 | $23,000 | ||
| May 25 | 8:44 PM CDT | EF1 | Gove, KS | 9.9 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| May 25 | 7:52 PM MDT | EF0 | Baca, CO | 1.1 | 75 | $10,000 | ||
| May 25 | 8:00 PM MDT | EF1 | Baca, CO | 2.5 | 300 | $5,000 | ||
| May 25 | 10:04 PM CDT | EF0 | Trego, KS | 5.9 | 150 | |||
| May 25 | 10:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Ellis, KS | 6.9 | 75 |
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.