Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2011

EF0 tornado, Hartburg, Texas, August 14, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Newton County on August 14, 2011, touching down at 4:19 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
August 14, 2011
Touchdown
4:19 PM CDT (21:19 UTC)
Lifted
4:20 PM CDT (21:20 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
County
Newton County
Touchdown point
30.249, -93.769
Lift-off point
30.249, -93.769
Record number
1108141519-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A low pressure area helped produce an isolated tornado in rural Newton County.

A tornado briefy touched down, knocking large branches down from some trees.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
20:46 UTC21:13 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH

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 19:59 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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 57 km from the path. August 14, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2011-08-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2943 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 716 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2011-08-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2943 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3414 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
716 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 57 km from the path. August 15, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2011-08-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2109 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 1218 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2011-08-15The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2109 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
961 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1218 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Orange (ORG), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:35 UTC93.273.4170° 8 kt1013.2
19:55 UTC91.473.4260° 5 kt141013.5
20:15 UTC82.473.4300° 4 kt1012.9+RA
20:35 UTC82.4770° 0 kt1012.5-VCTSRA
20:55 UTC82.478.810° 7 kt1013.9TS
21:15 UTC78.871.6360° 7 kt171013.5TS
21:35 UTC7769.8310° 8 kt1013.5-RA
21:55 UTC75.271.6300° 4 kt1012.9TS
22:15 UTC7771.60° 0 kt1012.5
22:35 UTC75.271.6100° 3 kt1012.9-VCTSDZ
22:55 UTC7771.60° 0 kt1013.2RA
23:15 UTC7773.4110° 6 kt1012.9-RA

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

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:18 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:19 UTCTORNADO10 N OrangeNewton, TXPUBLIC SIGHTING OF BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN REPORTED TO ORANGE COUNTY SHERRIFS OFFICE. FEW DOWNED TREE LIMBS ALSO REPORTED.

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 August 14, 2011

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 147:35 PM MDTEF0Corson, SD0.210
August 147:55 PM MDTEF0Corson, SD0.210

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.