Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2011
EF1 tornado, Stith to Hodges, Texas, April 21, 2011
From Stith to Hodges, this EF1 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Jones County on April 21, 2011, touching down at 8:52 PM CDT and reaching 200 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- April 21, 2011
- Touchdown
- 8:52 PM CDT (01:52 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:00 PM CDT (02:00 UTC)
- On the ground
- 8 minutes
- Path length
- 5.0 miles (8.0 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Jones County
- Touchdown point
- 32.570, -99.980
- Lift-off point
- 32.621, -100.039
- Record number
- 1104211952-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An isolated supercell developed along a dryline/warm front intersection 20 miles west-northwest of Sweetwater. The severe storm moved east-southeast across Fisher, Nolan and Jones counties and produced isolated tornadoes and large hail through the evening hours.
The tornado damaged roofs and broke the windows of a couple of residences, it destroyed barns, fencing, and a porch. A heavy steel granary bin was rolled about 250 yards. The twister ripped up numerous mesquite trees and killed a cow. A gooseneck trailer was thrown approx 100 yards at the intersection of County Road 433 and County Road 452. The tornado left a well defined path in both the plowed field and the unplowed fields.
A rope tornado was reported at the intersection of FM 707 and FM 605 approximately 6 miles west of Hawely near the community of Stith.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
22 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:30 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:06 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:06 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SJT |
| 00:42 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT |
| 00:50 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | SJT |
| 01:30 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | SJT |
| 01:45 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT |
| 01:56 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | SJT |
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 00:59 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.
Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z
1.9 hours before the tornado, 218 km from the path. April 22, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1962 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1620 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2427 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 2 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -18 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 45 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 2.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 10.2 K/km
Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z
10.1 hours after it, 218 km from the path. April 22, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2629 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -151 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1690 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1237 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 172 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 180 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 7.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.0 K/km
The surface observations
Dyess Afb/Abilene (DYS), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:55 UTC | 86 | 63.5 | 160° 16 kt | 27 | 1006.8 | |
| 00:39 UTC | 84.2 | 62.6 | 140° 14 kt | 1007.5 | TS | |
| 00:55 UTC | 83.84 | 63.68 | 140° 11 kt | 1008.1 | TS | |
| 01:25 UTC | 82.4 | 64.4 | 130° 16 kt | 1007.5 | ||
| 01:32 UTC | 82.4 | 64.4 | 130° 17 kt | 24 | 1007.1 | TS |
| 01:47 UTC | 82.4 | 64.4 | 130° 18 kt | 23 | 1007.5 | VCTS |
| 01:55 UTC | 82.76 | 63.86 | 140° 19 kt | 23 | 1007.1 | |
| 02:55 UTC | 81.14 | 63.68 | 140° 16 kt | 22 | 1007.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:51 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:59 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 S Roby | Fisher, TX | HAIL RANGING DIMES UP TO THE SIZE OF GOLFBALLS FELL FROM 645PM TO 715 PM. |
| 00:15 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Roby | Fisher, TX | PENNY SIZE HAIL AT 715 PM |
| 01:10 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | Rotan | Fisher, TX | PING PONG BALL SIZE HAIL IN ROTAN |
| 01:19 UTC | HAIL 2 | 7 N Trent | Jones, TX | HAIL FROM GOFLBALL TO HEN EGG SIZE 7 MILES NORTH OF TRENT |
| 01:26 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 N Merkel | Taylor, TX | |
| 01:55 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Wsw Hawley | Jones, TX | ROPE TORNADO REPORTED AT THE INTERSECTION OF FM 707 AND FM 605 APPROXIMATELY 6 MILES WEST OF HAWLEY NEAR THE COMMUNITY OF STITH AT 855 PM. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 21, 2011
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.