Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2013

EF0 tornado, Vidauri, Texas, April 29, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Refugio County on April 29, 2013, touching down at 1:56 PM CDT 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
April 29, 2013
Touchdown
1:56 PM CDT (18:56 UTC)
Lifted
2:00 PM CDT (19:00 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Refugio County
Touchdown point
28.421, -97.131
Lift-off point
28.424, -97.131
Record number
1304291256-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak upper level disturbance combined with a modestly unstable air mass over the coastal plains to produce scattered strong to severe thunderstorms during the afternoon. The thunderstorms continued over the southern Coastal Bend into the evening hours and moved west into portions of the Brush Country also.

Public reported a tornado about 5 miles north of Quintana.

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

The warnings

19 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:37 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:14 UTC18:45 UTCTornado WarningCRP
18:37 UTC19:15 UTCTornado WarningCRP
18:46 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningCRP
19:19 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP
19:32 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningCRP
23:41 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP
00:07 UTC00:29 UTCTornado WarningCRP
00:25 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP

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 16:23 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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

6.9 hours before the tornado, 80 km from the path. April 29, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2013-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 758 joules per kilogram, CIN -19, lifted condensation level 664 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2013-04-29The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
758 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19 J/kg
Surface CAPE
788 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
664 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

5.1 hours after it, 80 km from the path. April 30, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2013-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1814 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 475 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2013-04-30The 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 62 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
1814 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2653 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
475 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
62 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
163 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Rockport/Aransas Co (RKP), 39 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:08 UTC7769.8110° 7 kt1012.5
17:17 UTC78.871.6120° 10 kt1012.9
17:29 UTC78.871.6120° 10 kt1012.5
17:53 UTC7971120° 10 kt1012.2
18:16 UTC75.271.6120° 9 kt1012.2HZ
18:24 UTC75.271.6120° 9 kt1011.9
18:53 UTC7671130° 9 kt1011.2VCTS
19:34 UTC7771.6120° 10 kt1010.8
19:53 UTC7471120° 12 kt1010.8
20:53 UTC7971110° 12 kt1010.2

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

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:54 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
18:01 UTCTORNADO 04 Nne TaftSan Patricio, TXSEVERAL EYEWITNESSES OBSERVED A TORNADO NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF STATE HIGHWAY 188 AND FM 631. THE TORNADO REMAINED OVER AN OPEN FIELD FOR UP TO TEN MINUTES...PRODUCING NO SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE OR INJURIES.
18:01 UTCTORNADO4 Nne TaftSan Patricio, TXBRIEF TOUCHDOWN NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF STATE HIGHWAY 188 AND FM 631. REPORTED BY AN AFFILIATE WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT. NO DAMAGE...NO INJURIES. MAGNITUDE UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 29, 2013

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 291:01 PM CDTEF0San Patricio, TX1.720
April 291:26 PM CDTEF0San Patricio, TX0.110

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.