Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2012

EF1 tornado, Newton to Newton Muni Arpt, Texas, April 2, 2012

From Newton to Newton Muni Arpt, this EF1 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Newton County on April 2, 2012, touching down at 10:46 AM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
April 2, 2012
Touchdown
10:46 AM CDT (15:46 UTC)
Lifted
10:50 AM CDT (15:50 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
1.8 miles (2.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
County
Newton County
Touchdown point
30.834, -93.751
Lift-off point
30.860, -93.749
Record number
1204020946-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level disturbance crossed southeast Texas while a front remained in the area. This resulted in severe thunderstorms, including a tornado in Newton.

A tornado touched down on the eastern sections of Newton, where is destroyed an abandoned house, another home lost its back porch, which flipped onto the roof and caused major damage to the roof. At least another 15-20 homes received minor damage to its trim or gutters. Numerous trees were blown down or snapped.

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 15:10 UTC and running to 17:13 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:10 UTC17:13 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLCH

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 12:57 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

3.8 hours before the tornado, 97 km from the path. April 2, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2012-04-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3588 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 441 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2012-04-02The 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 104 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.193958Sfc1 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
3588 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4857 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
441 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.2 hours after it, 97 km from the path. April 3, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2012-04-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1475 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 650 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 2012-04-03The 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 166 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1475 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
886 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
650 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
300 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
9.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Jasper County-Bell Field Airport (JAS), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
13:55 UTC73.5870.7110° 5 kt1007.8BR
14:15 UTC74.1271.24120° 8 kt1007.8BR
14:35 UTC74.6671.42130° 7 kt1007.5BR
14:55 UTC75.7471.6130° 5 kt1007.1
15:15 UTC76.4671.78130° 7 kt1007.5
15:35 UTC77.7271.6
15:55 UTC72.1467220° 17 kt311009.5+RA
16:15 UTC6764.22180° 5 kt151009.8-RA
16:35 UTC66.74640° 0 kt1010.2RA
16:55 UTC66.264.220° 0 kt1009.5RA
17:15 UTC66.264.480° 4 kt1009.8RA
17:35 UTC6664.410° 5 kt1008.1-RA

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

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
15:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGKirbyvilleJasper, TXTRAMPOLINES BLOWN OVER IN KIRBYVILLE.
15:31 UTCTSTM WND DMGBleakwoodNewton, TXNEWTON COUNTY SHERIFF REPORT TREES DOWN IN BLEAKWOOD WEST OF HWY 190
15:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGNewtonNewton, TXNEWTON SHERIFF REPORT MULTIPLE TREES DOWN IN DOWNTOWN NEWTON. THERE ARE TREES DOWN NEAR MELODY LANE AND ALSO SHADY ACRES.
15:45 UTCTORNADOBleakwoodNewton, TXNWS STORM SURVEY COFIRMS AN EF1 TORNADO TOUCHDOWN NEAR BLEAKWOOD. THE PATH WAS 3 MILES LONG WITH A WIDTH OF 25 YARDS. ONE ABANDONED HOUSE WAS DESTROYED WHEN TREE FELL ON IT. 1 HOUSE LOST ENTIRE BACK PORCH. THERE WAS ALSO
16:04 UTCTSTM WND DMGBurkevilleNewton, TXNEWTON SHERIFF REPORT TREES DOWN IN BURKEVILLE ALONG FARM TO MARKET 1415
16:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGPinelandSabine, TXTREES REPORTED DOWN IN THE PINELAND AREA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 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.