Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2011
EF0 tornado, (Fwh)Carswell Afb Ft, Texas, May 11, 2011
This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Tarrant County on May 11, 2011, touching down at 1:55 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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 11, 2011
- Touchdown
- 1:55 PM CDT (18:55 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:56 PM CDT (18:56 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
- $30,000
- County
- Tarrant County
- Touchdown point
- 32.748, -97.476
- Lift-off point
- 32.753, -97.470
- Record number
- 1105111255-01
The damage survey
5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.
- fences down on jensen and dale
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Scattered thunderstorms developed along a dryline during the early afternoon hours. These storms consolidated into a couple of linear mesoscale convective systems that produced wind damage mainly north of the Interstate 20 corridor. During the evening hours, storms consolidated into a long quasi-linear convective system across the CWA. Isolated reports of large hail and wind damage occurred during the evening hours as well as heavy rainfall which led to localized flash flooding. Two EF-0 tornadoes also occurred on this day; one in Cooke County and the second in Tarrant County.
An EF-0 tornado occurred in White Settlement east of Loop 820 and south of White Settlement Road. Initially, tree limbs and fences were knocked down and minor roof damage was observed. The tornado then traveled into Central Park where it snapped at least three light poles and destroyed a storage shed. A convergent pattern to the damage helped verify the occurrence of a brief tornado. Maximum estimated winds were 75 to 85 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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 15:22 UTC and running to 20:50 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:22 UTC | 20:50 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | FWD |
| 18:37 UTC | 19:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
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 16:38 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.
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z
6.9 hours before the tornado, 19 km from the path. May 11, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1949 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -156 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2557 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 622 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 244 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 274 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 4.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z
5.1 hours after it, 19 km from the path. May 12, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 26 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -441 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 50 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1482 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 270 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 219 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.6 K/km
The radar
The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:53 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:19 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 6 Sw Weatherford | Parker, TX | BETHEL ROAD AND HORSESHOE BEND ROAD |
| 18:33 UTC | TSTM WND GST 66 | 1 N Springtown | Parker, TX | |
| 18:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bridgeport | Wise, TX | POWER LINES DOWN AT FM 2123 AND SH 114 IN BRIDGEPORT |
| 18:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Decatur | Wise, TX | RESTAURANT SIGN DAMAGE ALONG 287 IN DECATUR; TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR |
| 18:54 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Nne Rhome | Wise, TX | TRACTOR TRAILERS BLOWN OFF ROAD AT THE INTERSECTION OF HWY 287 AND FM 407; ESTIMATED 65 MPH WINDS. |
| 18:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 Nne Rhome | Wise, TX | ROOF OFF HOME AND POWER POLES SNAPPED ON FM 2264 APPROX. 3 TO 4 MI WEST OF DENTON COUNTY LINE. |
| 18:58 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | White Settlement | Tarrant, TX | METAL LIGHT POLES BENT IN HALF, POWER POLES SNAPPED, AND 1 FT DIAMETER TREE SNAPPED IN HALF. WINDS ESTIMATED NEAR 65 MPH. |
| 19:04 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | Fort Worth | Tarrant, TX | MEASURED 50 KTS AT NWS OFFICE IN FORT WORTH |
| 19:10 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 N Keller | Tarrant, TX | INTERSECTION OF ROANOKE AND KNOX IN NORTH KELLER |
| 19:33 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | Irving | Dallas, TX | 65 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED IN IRVING |
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 May 11, 2011
15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 11 | 1:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Adams, NE | 0.1 | 25 | $25,000 | ||
| May 11 | 2:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Cooke, TX | 1.6 | 75 | $18,000 | ||
| May 11 | 2:50 PM CDT | EF1 | Hamilton, NE | 2.3 | 200 | $150,000 | ||
| May 11 | 3:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Polk, NE | 2.3 | 75 | $100,000 | ||
| May 11 | 4:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Taylor, IA | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| May 11 | 4:38 PM CDT | EF1 | Taylor, IA | 0.7 | 440 | $5.0 million | ||
| May 11 | 4:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Taylor, IA | 1.0 | 400 | $10 million | ||
| May 11 | 4:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Adams, IA | 0.4 | 30 | |||
| May 11 | 6:11 PM CDT | EF0 | Mayes, OK | 0.5 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| May 11 | 6:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Delaware, OK | 1.5 | 200 | $250,000 | ||
| May 11 | 6:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Sioux, IA | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 11 | 7:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Osceola, IA | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 11 | 7:23 PM CDT | EF0 | McDonald, MO | 0.8 | 75 | $10,000 | ||
| May 11 | 8:21 PM CDT | EF0 | Bates, MO | 8.5 | 50 | $500 | ||
| May 11 | 8:35 PM CDT | EF0 | St. Clair, MO | 2.7 | 50 | $8,000 |
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.