Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2012

EF0 tornado, Rocks Spgs, Texas, January 24, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Edwards County on January 24, 2012, touching down at 11:30 PM CST and reaching 10 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
January 24, 2012
Touchdown
11:30 PM CST (05:30 UTC)
Lifted
11:32 PM CST (05:32 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Edwards County
Touchdown point
30.067, -100.398
Lift-off point
30.089, -100.354
Record number
1201242330-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A deep upper level low pressure center brought a frontal system through Texas which caused thunderstorms across South Central Texas. These storms formed into a mesoscale convective system and produced several tornadoes, wind damage, large hail, and heavy rain that resulted in flash flooding.

A thunderstorm produced a tornado rated EF0 which tore up a few trees on a ranch 10 miles north of Rocksprings. Peak winds were estimated at 65 mph.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:29 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
04:52 UTC05:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
04:55 UTC07:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryEWX
05:17 UTC05:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
05:29 UTC05:45 UTCTornado WarningEWX
05:41 UTC06:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
05:44 UTC06:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
06:20 UTC07:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX

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 00:57 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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

5.5 hours before the tornado, 91 km from the path. January 25, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2012-01-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 619 joules per kilogram, CIN -174, lifted condensation level 573 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2012-01-25The 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 253 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
619 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-174 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
573 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
253 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z

6.5 hours after it, 91 km from the path. January 25, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2012-01-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -75505, lifted condensation level 1619 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2012-01-25The 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 -121 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-75505 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1619 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-121 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-193 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Laughlin AFB radar (KDFX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:28 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
05:30 UTCTORNADO12 Wnw RockspringsEdwards, TXPOSSIBLE TORNADO WEST OF ROCKSPRINGS NEAR STATE ROAD 55.
05:39 UTCTORNADO10 Nnw RockspringsEdwards, TXA TORNADO TORN UP A FEW TREES ON A RANCH 10 MILES NORTH OF ROCKSPRINGS.
06:00 UTCHAIL 0.2517 Sw RockspringsEdwards, TX

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.