Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2013

EF0 tornado, San Juan, Texas, June 2, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Nueces County on June 2, 2013, touching down at 10:50 AM 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
June 2, 2013
Touchdown
10:50 AM CDT (15:50 UTC)
Lifted
10:52 AM CDT (15:52 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Nueces County
Touchdown point
27.682, -97.530
Lift-off point
27.684, -97.528
Record number
1306020950-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed along the coast during the morning hours. A weak tornado was observed south of the Corpus Christi International Airport.

Public shared a photo of a landspout tornado about 5 miles south of the Corpus Christi International Airport near Farm to Market Road 43 and County Road 53. There was no damage as the tornado remained over farm land.

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 12:54 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

3.8 hours before the tornado, 19 km from the path. June 2, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2013-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2583 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 570 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2013-06-02The 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 -7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
2583 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3410 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
570 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-3 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.2 hours after it, 19 km from the path. June 3, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2013-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1087 joules per kilogram, CIN -108, lifted condensation level 1237 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2013-06-03The 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 37 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 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
1087 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-108 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2080 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1237 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
37 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:49 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
15:50 UTCTORNADO 07 Ssw Corpus ChristiNueces, TXPUBLIC SHARED A PHOTO OF A LANDSPOUT. CONFIRMED LOCATION 5 MILES SOUTH OF CORPUS CHRISTI INTL AIRPORT NEAR FM 43 AND CR 53. NO REPORTS OF DAMAGE.
17:12 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 3910 Ssw Flour BluffKleberg, TXPEAK WIND GUST OF 34 KNOTS MEASURED AT BIRD ISLAND TCOON SITE.

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 June 2, 2013

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 24:09 PM EDTEF1Anderson, SC4.8125$150,000
June 24:36 PM EDTEF0Somerset, ME0.040

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.