Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2014

EF0 tornado, Clark, Texas, December 27, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Liberty County on December 27, 2014, touching down at 1:12 PM CST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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
December 27, 2014
Touchdown
1:12 PM CST (19:12 UTC)
Lifted
1:15 PM CST (19:15 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Liberty County
Touchdown point
30.385, -94.782
Lift-off point
30.386, -94.781
Record number
1412271312-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Showers and thunderstorms developed early in the afternoon ahead of a strong cold front. One severe storm developed in the unstable air mass and produced a tornado in Liberty County.

Tornado damage was found approximately one mile west of CR 2117 and SH 146. There was damage to trees and power lines. One roof was torn off a mobile home.

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
18:54 UTC19:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningHGX

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:28 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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

7.2 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. December 27, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2014-12-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 538 joules per kilogram, CIN -37, lifted condensation level 607 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2014-12-27The 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 228 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
538 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-37 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
607 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
228 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
274 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

4.8 hours after it, 155 km from the path. December 28, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-12-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1363 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 452 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-12-28The 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 141 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 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
1363 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1038 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
452 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
149 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cleveland (6R3), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:30 UTC70.8869.8160° 5 kt1016.6BR
19:10 UTC61.3460330° 9 kt1015.9TS
19:35 UTC6059.18320° 10 kt1015.6-DZ
19:55 UTC57.256.3320° 9 kt1015.9-RA
20:15 UTC55.454.32330° 8 kt1016.6-RA
20:30 UTC54.3253.42320° 11 kt1016.6+RA
20:50 UTC5352.16330° 10 kt1016.6-RA
21:10 UTC52.5251.8330° 9 kt161017.3VCTS BR

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:09 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
19:12 UTCTSTM WND DMG25 N LibertyLiberty, TXTHUNDERSTORM WIND DAMAGE AT CR 2117 AND SH 146...ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF MILE IN LENGTH. DAMAGE TO TREES...POWER LINES...AND ROOF OFF A MOBILE HOME.
19:12 UTCTORNADO15 Ese ShepherdLiberty, TXTORNADO APPROXIMATELY 1 MILE WEST OF CR 2117 AND SH 146. INITIALLY REPORTED AS WIND DAMAGE. WITNESSES DESCRIBE DAMAGE PATH 400 YDS LONG AND 75 YDS WIDE. DAMAGE PATTERN CONSISTENT WITH TORNADO. DAMAGE TO TREES AND POWER L

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 27, 2014

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 272:00 PM CSTEF1Tyler, TX4.350$15,000
December 272:35 PM CSTEF1Jasper, TX2.0150$100,000

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.