Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2013

EF0 tornado, Woodrow, Texas, April 30, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lubbock County on April 30, 2013, touching down at 5:18 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 30, 2013
Touchdown
5:18 PM CDT (22:18 UTC)
Lifted
5:19 PM CDT (22:19 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lubbock County
Touchdown point
33.447, -101.858
Lift-off point
33.447, -101.856
Record number
1304301618-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Late this afternoon, isolated very high-based showers and thunderstorms developed over the southern and central South Plains. One of these storms intensified across southwest Lubbock County and western Lynn County before collapsing a short while later near downtown Lubbock. A second storm developed across western Floyd County. A series of microbursts produced winds estimated as high as 65 mph at times. These winds inflicted sporadic damage to trees, windows, power poles, and caused a few incidents of minor structural damage mainly in central and eastern sections of Lubbock as well as western portions of Lynn County and central Floyd County. Scattered power outages were common. In the wake of this storm, lightning triggered a grass fire near the KCBD-TV news station prompting an evacuation of the building during a live newscast. The fire was estimated to be five acres and caused no known damage or injuries. Additionally, a landspout tornado formed along one of the outflow boundaries in Lubbock County. This EF-0 landspout remained in an open field and caused no damage.

A landspout tornado formed along an outflow boundary from a microburst near Lubbock-Cooper High School in southern Lubbock County. The landspout remained in an open field for the duration of the event.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:32 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
22:38 UTC23:33 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB

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 19:55 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 170 km from the path. April 30, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z 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 809 joules per kilogram, CIN -486, lifted condensation level 1733 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z 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 222 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
809 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-486 J/kg
Surface CAPE
955 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1733 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
222 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
457 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 170 km from the path. May 1, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2013-05-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 5055 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2013-05-01The 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 -14 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 knots.1939Sfc1 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
127 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
5055 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-14 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
10.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lubbock International Airport (LBB), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:53 UTC9339160° 10 kt201004.4
21:39 UTC89.632210° 9 kt1004.7
21:53 UTC9028300° 16 kt291004.7
22:16 UTC89.624.8140° 4 kt1004.1TS
22:53 UTC8726200° 18 kt281003.7TS BLDU
23:24 UTC87.823190° 15 kt221003.7
23:53 UTC8624170° 11 kt221003.7

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

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 23 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:18 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
22:13 UTCTSTM WND GST 582 Ene Nws LubbockLubbock, TXMEASURED AT THE KCBD-TV STUDIO
22:13 UTCTSTM WND GST 58LubbockLubbock, TXMEASURED AT THE KCBD-TV STUDIO
22:27 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Se LubbockLubbock, TXPOWER POLES DOWN AT 50TH ST AND MLK BLVD
22:27 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sse Downtown LubbockLubbock, TXPOWER POLES DOWN AT 50TH ST AND MLK BLVD
22:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGLubbockLubbock, TXSPORADIC DAMAGE TO TREES AND SOME STRUCTURES IN CENTRAL LUBBOCK.
22:38 UTCTSTM WND GST 651 W LubbockLubbock, TX
22:38 UTCTSTM WND GST 651 Wsw LubbockLubbock, TX3.5 INCH DIAMETER TREE LIMB SNAPPED.
22:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG12 W TahokaLynn, TXPOWER POLES SNAPPED 1.5 MILES EAST OF WEST POINT. TIME ESTIMATED.
23:15 UTCWILDFIRE 52 Ene Nws LubbockLubbock, TXLIGHTNING CAUSED GRASS FIRE NEAR KCBD-TV STUDIO. BUILDING WAS EVACUATED. NO INJURIES. SIZE AND TIME ESTIMATED.

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 30, 2013

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 301:56 PM EDTEF0Palm Beach, FL0.110

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.