Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2011
EF1 tornado, Crockett, Texas, April 25, 2011
This EF1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Houston County on April 25, 2011, touching down at 9:15 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 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 25, 2011
- Touchdown
- 9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:18 PM CDT (02:18 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Houston County
- Touchdown point
- 31.295, -95.502
- Lift-off point
- 31.294, -95.500
- Record number
- 1104252015-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms erupted along the dry line with the help of a shortwave aloft and produced large hail, strong damaging winds and tornadoes.
Tornado destroyed unoccupied mobile home and damaged several others along County Road 3015. Path continued across Route 21 with several large trees uprooted or snapped on a hillside east of Route 21.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
48 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:27 UTC, 48 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:43 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:43 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | HGX |
| 00:46 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 01:27 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 02:08 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
| 02:11 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 02:18 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 03:30 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
| 04:09 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:32 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
2.3 hours before the tornado, 211 km from the path. April 26, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 782 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -155 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1515 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1445 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 262 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 553 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 15.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.9 K/km
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z
9.7 hours after it, 211 km from the path. April 26, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1650 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -50 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 640 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 566 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 148 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 57 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.5
- Supercell composite
- 7.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
The radar
The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 190 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:35 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 3 W Palestine | Anderson, TX | VFD REPORTS NICKEL SIZE HAIL ON US79 JUST WEST OF THE SPLIT. |
| 00:35 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N Oakwood | Leon, TX | 2 SPOTTED. ONE JUST OFF THE GROUND, ONE FULLY ON THE GROUND. |
| 00:38 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Oakwood | Leon, TX | |
| 00:56 UTC | TORNADO | 3 E Oakwood | Leon, TX | TORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND 3E OF OAKWOOD ON HWY 79. |
| 00:58 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Buffalo | Leon, TX | TORNADO SPOTTED ON THE GROUND 2NE OF BUFFALO. |
| 01:00 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 5 Sw Palestine | Anderson, TX | NICKEL SIZE HAIL NEAR ACR 2101 AT LAKEVIEW ENCAMPMENT. |
| 01:04 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | Keechi | Leon, TX | 5 TO 10 INCH DIAMETER TREES BLOWN DOWN 1 NNW OF KECCHI. |
| 01:08 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 4 Ssw Elkhart | Anderson, TX | DIME TO NICKEL SIZE HAIL 4 MILES SSW OF ELKHART. |
| 01:27 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Elkhart | Anderson, TX | QUARTER TO GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL REPORTED IN ELKHART. 12 INCH TREE ALSO KNOCKED DOWN ACROSS FROM FM861. |
| 01:41 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 N Grapeland | Houston, TX | |
| 01:45 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 E Grapeland | Houston, TX | NICKLE TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL REPORTED. |
| 01:52 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Elkhart | Anderson, TX | NICKEL SIZE HAIL IN ELKHART. |
| 01:58 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 Se Elkhart | Anderson, TX | GOLFBALL HAIL SE OF ELKHART. |
| 01:58 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 Sw Elkhart | Anderson, TX | |
| 01:59 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 12 E Grapeland | Houston, TX | |
| 02:14 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 1 E Grapeland | Houston, TX | LOTS OF NICKEL SIZED HAIL WITH A FEW HAIL STONES AS LARGE AS GOLF BALLS. |
| 02:18 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Wnw Crockett | Houston, TX | 2 MOBILE HOMES DAMAGED ONE SEVERELY. NO ONE INJURED. TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 02:20 UTC | HAIL 1 | Latexo | Houston, TX | |
| 02:35 UTC | DOWNBURST | 1 S Wells | Angelina, TX | A 2 MILE SWATH OF SEVERE WIND DAMAGE IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE REAR FLANK DOWNDRAFT FROM THE WELLS TORNADO. MINOR ROOF DAMAGE OCCURRED TO HOMES ALONG FM 1819. THE OLD REDTOWN SCHOOL AND SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER BOTH LOST PART |
| 02:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 8 Ne Crockett | Houston, TX | TREES DOWN AND BLOCKING HIGHWAY 21 EAST. |
| 02:37 UTC | TORNADO | Wells | Cherokee, TX | AN EF1 TORNADO WITH A 10 MILE PATH LENGTH BEGAN IN THE EXTREME SOUTHEAST CORNER OF CHEROKEE COUNTY WHERE IT CAUSED ROOF DAMAGE TO A HOME ALONG CR 2829. THE STORM CONTINUED INTO ANGELINA COUNTY WHERE IT SNAPPED AND UPROOT |
| 02:40 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ssw Wells | Angelina, TX | TORNADO ON THE GROUND NORTH OF HWY 103 AND 7. |
| 02:58 UTC | TORNADO | Wells | Cherokee, TX | SPOTTERS REPORTED A TORNADO ON THE GROUND NEAR THE COMMUNITY OF WELLS. |
| 04:30 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 6 Ne Trinity | Trinity, TX | |
| 04:51 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 10 Ese Trinity | Trinity, TX | NEAR FM 356 AT BARRETS LANDING NICKEL HAIL. |
| 05:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Riverside | Walker, TX | WALKER COUNTY SHERRIF HAD NUMEROUS REPORTS OF TREES DOWN IN AND AROUND RIVERSIDE. |
| 05:15 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | 4 E Riverside | Walker, TX |
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 25, 2011
45 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 25 | 9:05 AM CDT | EF0 | Hempstead, AR | 7.6 | 100 | |||
| April 25 | 1:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Hood, TX | 2.5 | 150 | |||
| April 25 | 2:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Hood, TX | 0.4 | 25 | |||
| April 25 | 2:02 PM CDT | EF0 | McCurtain, OK | 9.2 | 75 | |||
| April 25 | 2:55 PM CDT | EF1 | Polk, AR | 5.8 | 50 | $250,000 | ||
| April 25 | 3:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Somervell, TX | 0.8 | 50 | |||
| April 25 | 3:10 PM CDT | EF0 | Johnson, TX | 2.6 | 400 | |||
| April 25 | 3:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Johnson, TX | 0.9 | 150 | |||
| April 25 | 3:32 PM CDT | EF1 | Cherokee, TX | 8.6 | 75 | $500 | ||
| April 25 | 4:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Hill, TX | 0.7 | 30 | |||
| April 25 | 4:23 PM CDT | EF1 | Christian, KY | 1.5 | 275 | $100,000 | ||
| April 25 | 4:24 PM CDT | EF1 | Garland, AR | 9.3 | 300 | $600,000 | ||
| April 25 | 4:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Pike, AR | 11.6 | 800 | $290,000 | ||
| April 25 | 4:56 PM CDT | EF2 | Garland, AR | 5.9 | 200 | 9 | $3.0 million | |
| April 25 | 5:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Pike, AR | 4.3 | 300 | $200,000 | ||
| April 25 | 5:02 PM CDT | EF2 | Garland, AR | 14.4 | 300 | 10 | $5.0 million | |
| April 25 | 5:18 PM CDT | EF0 | McCurtain, OK | 2.5 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| April 25 | 5:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Ellis, TX | 0.5 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| April 25 | 5:37 PM CDT | EF0 | Sevier, AR | 7.4 | 70 | |||
| April 25 | 5:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Wayne, MO | 11.8 | 200 | $25,000 | ||
| April 25 | 5:58 PM CDT | EF1 | Wayne, MO | 5.9 | 500 | $70,000 | ||
| April 25 | 6:07 PM CDT | EF3 | Garland, AR | 16.8 | 300 | 1 | 20 | $23 million |
| April 25 | 6:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Perry, AR | 6.0 | 300 | $700,000 | ||
| April 25 | 6:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Pike, AR | 4.2 | 250 | $100,000 | ||
| April 25 | 6:30 PM CDT | EF1 | Bollinger, MO | 2.8 | 70 | $200,000 | ||
| April 25 | 6:48 PM CDT | EF1 | Pulaski, AR | 1.6 | 400 | $250,000 | ||
| April 25 | 6:48 PM CDT | EF2 | Pulaski, AR | 51.3 | 2,900 | 4 | 16 | $53 million |
| April 25 | 6:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Limestone, TX | 1.3 | 100 | |||
| April 25 | 6:59 PM CDT | EF0 | Freestone, TX | 0.8 | 100 | |||
| April 25 | 7:06 PM CDT | EF1 | Faulkner, AR | 1.1 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| April 25 | 7:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Freestone, TX | 3.5 | 500 | |||
| April 25 | 7:35 PM CDT | EF0 | Leon, TX | 0.9 | 100 | |||
| April 25 | 7:46 PM CDT | EF2 | Pulaski, AR | 5.2 | 350 | 4 | $125 million | |
| April 25 | 7:53 PM CDT | EF1 | Lonoke, AR | 21.9 | 800 | $390,000 | ||
| April 25 | 8:15 PM CDT | EF1 | Prairie, AR | 6.2 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| April 25 | 8:24 PM CDT | EF1 | White, AR | 8.9 | 100 | $1.0 million | ||
| April 25 | 9:37 PM CDT | EF1 | Angelina, TX | 7.7 | 250 | $400,000 | ||
| April 25 | 9:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Trinity, TX | 0.6 | 100 | $30,000 | ||
| April 25 | 10:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Angelina, TX | 0.7 | 25 | $2,000 | ||
| April 25 | 11:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Weakley, TN to KY | 15.4 | 225 | $150,000 | ||
| April 25 | 11:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Henderson, TN | 17.0 | 200 | $20,000 | ||
| April 25 | 12:30 AM CDT | EF0 | Polk, TX | 0.1 | 20 | $1,000 | ||
| April 25 | 12:30 AM CDT | EF0 | Calloway, KY | 0.8 | 175 | $80,000 | ||
| April 25 | 12:37 AM CDT | EF1 | Lyon, KY | 3.2 | 50 | $150,000 | ||
| April 25 | 12:40 AM CDT | EF1 | Lyon, KY | 15.4 | 100 | $200,000 |
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.