Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2013

EF0 tornado, Wolfforth, Texas, August 7, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Lubbock County on August 7, 2013, touching down at 4:48 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
August 7, 2013
Touchdown
4:48 PM CDT (21:48 UTC)
Lifted
4:49 PM CDT (21:49 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lubbock County
Touchdown point
33.529, -102.020
Lift-off point
33.529, -102.020
Record number
1308071548-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon and early evening hours ahead of a shortwave trough in New Mexico. Numerous preexisting outflow boundaries were also present across the South and Rolling Plains from earlier activity, which combined with a frontal boundary across the Texas Panhandle providing lift. A brief landspout tornado formed in southwest Lubbock County prior to thunderstorm initiation, before isolated severe wind gusts and damage occurred underneath more mature storms in Hockley, Floyd, and Stonewall Counties.

A brief landspout tornado was reported by a local meteorologist north of Wolfforth underneath a developing cumulus cloud. No damage or injuries occurred.

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.

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 19:57 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.

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

9.8 hours before the tornado, 176 km from the path. August 7, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2013-08-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 237 joules per kilogram, CIN -219, lifted condensation level 2335 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 2013-08-07The 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 -9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 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
237 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-219 J/kg
Surface CAPE
257 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2335 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.2 hours after it, 176 km from the path. August 8, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2013-08-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 43 joules per kilogram, CIN -199, lifted condensation level 2608 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 00:00Z on 2013-08-08The 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 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
43 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-199 J/kg
Surface CAPE
427 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2608 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 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
19:53 UTC9456 3 kt1014.6
20:53 UTC9858120° 8 kt1013.5
21:53 UTC9755120° 11 kt1012.9
22:53 UTC9555150° 11 kt1012.5
23:14 UTC87.855.4250° 27 kt331013.5BLDU
23:25 UTC84.259260° 17 kt221013.9BLDU

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

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:49 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
21:48 UTCTORNADO2 N WolfforthLubbock, TXBRIEF LANDSPOUT TORNADO...CORRECTED LOCATION
21:48 UTCTORNADO6 Nnw RopesvilleHockley, TXBRIEF LANDSPOUT TORNADO UNDER CUMULUS CLOUD
22:27 UTCTSTM WND DMGLevellandHockley, TXUTILITY POLES BLOWN DOWN ON WEST SIDE OF LEVELLAND. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.

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 August 7, 2013

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 73:01 PM EDTEF1Wayne, OH0.950$50,000
August 77:20 PM EDTEF0Somerset, PA0.275$2,000
August 77:36 PM CDTEF0Beaver, OK0.125

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.