Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2011

EF0 tornado, Liberty Hill, Texas, November 15, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across San Jacinto County on November 15, 2011, touching down at 2:20 PM CST and reaching 20 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.

  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
November 15, 2011
Touchdown
2:20 PM CST (20:20 UTC)
Lifted
2:22 PM CST (20:22 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
San Jacinto County
Touchdown point
30.421, -95.203
Lift-off point
30.421, -95.203
Record number
1111151420-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A thunderstorm produced a weak tornado that caused little damage.

A funnel cloud sighted by fire department and rescue people touched down twice in a pasture. Swirling dirt was evident near the intersection of FM 1725 and Tony Tap Road. There was little damage caused by this EF0 tornado.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:05 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 15:00 UTC and running to 21:44 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:00 UTC21:44 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchHGX
20:05 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
20:42 UTC21:16 UTCTornado WarningHGX

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:38 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.

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

8.3 hours before the tornado, 195 km from the path. November 15, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2011-11-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 26 joules per kilogram, CIN -395, lifted condensation level 948 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 2011-11-15The 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 180 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
26 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-395 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
948 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.7 hours after it, 195 km from the path. November 16, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2011-11-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1919 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 541 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 2011-11-16The 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 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1919 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2056 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
541 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
4.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cleveland (6R3), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:35 UTC82.466.2170° 9 kt151007.5
18:55 UTC78.864.4170° 5 kt1007.5
19:15 UTC80.664.4160° 5 kt1006.8
19:35 UTC78.864.4150° 4 kt1006.4
19:55 UTC78.864.4140° 5 kt1005.8
20:15 UTC7764.40° 0 kt1005.4VCTS
20:35 UTC7764.4160° 7 kt1005.4-TSRA
20:55 UTC73.466.2180° 8 kt1006.1+TSRA
21:15 UTC71.668270° 11 kt151006.1+TSRA
21:35 UTC66.262.6280° 9 kt181007.1VCTSRA
21:55 UTC69.864.4210° 3 kt1006.4VCTS
22:15 UTC69.866.20° 0 kt1006.4

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:21 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
20:21 UTCTORNADO9 Nw ClevelandSan Jacinto, TXFIRE MARSHALL AND PARAMEDICS WITNESSED FUNNEL TOUCHING THE GROUND TWO TIMES IN A PASTURE WITH SWIRLING DIRT AT THE GROUND. OCCURED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF 1725 AND TONY TAP ROAD. LITTLE DAMAGE. TORNADO RATED EF0.

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

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.