Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2014

EF0 tornado, Refugio, Texas, June 25, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Refugio County on June 25, 2014, touching down at 4:14 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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
June 25, 2014
Touchdown
4:14 PM CDT (21:14 UTC)
Lifted
4:16 PM CDT (21:16 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Refugio County
Touchdown point
28.318, -97.276
Lift-off point
28.320, -97.271
Record number
1406251514-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak upper level disturbance moved into South Texas and interacted with deep tropical moisture over the region. Scattered thunderstorms developed over the Brush Country to the coastal plains. A strong storm formed over Refugio County and produced a weak tornado. The slow moving storm produced very heavy rainfall that led to flooding over rural northeast portions of the county.

NWS storm survey and local video concluded an EF0 tornado, with winds estimated at 65 MPH briefly touched down in north Refugio. It touched down near the intersection of west Heard Street and north Alamo Street. The tornado removed the roof and collapsed the north facing exterior wall of one mobile home. Minor shingle damage was observed on a couple of homes along east Houston Street. Several large trees were toppled.

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
21:31 UTC23:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningCRP
22:51 UTC00:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningCRP
00:15 UTC01:45 UTCFlash Flood 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 19:53 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

9.2 hours before the tornado, 66 km from the path. June 25, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2014-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2541 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 659 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 12:00Z on 2014-06-25The 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 -22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 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
2541 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3183 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
659 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-11 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.8 hours after it, 66 km from the path. June 26, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2014-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1176 joules per kilogram, CIN -90, lifted condensation level 1058 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 00:00Z on 2014-06-26The 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 -31 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 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
1176 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3166 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1058 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Rockport/Aransas Co (RKP), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC8977150° 12 kt181014.6
20:53 UTC8878140° 16 kt1013.5
21:20 UTC8578140° 10 kt1013.9VCTS
21:37 UTC8478150° 11 kt1014.6
21:47 UTC84.278.8140° 9 kt181014.2-TSRA
21:53 UTC8379140° 12 kt1014.2TSRA BR
22:08 UTC8279170° 7 kt171013.9VCTS -RA BR
22:16 UTC8177150° 7 kt1013.9VCTS -RA
22:24 UTC8177140° 7 kt1014.2-TSRA
22:53 UTC8176100° 9 kt1014.6TS
23:09 UTC8276160° 10 kt1014.6VCTS

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

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:14 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
21:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGRefugioRefugio, TXPOWER POLE DOWN ON MOBILE HOME AND PLAY GROUND EQUIPMENT DISPLACED NEAR INTERSECTION OF N ALAMO AND W HEARD. POSSIBLE FUNNEL CLOUD.
21:14 UTCTORNADO1 N RefugioRefugio, TXNWS STORM SURVEY AND LOCAL VIDEO CONCLUDED EF-0 TORNADO WITH WINDS ESTIMATED AT 65 MPH BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN IN NORTH REFUGIO NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF W HEARD ST AND 800 BLOCK OF NORTH ALAMO ST. THE TORNADO REMOVED THE RO

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 June 25, 2014

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 253:00 PM CDTEF0Green, WI0.330
June 256:05 PM MDTEF1Crook, WY5.9100$10,000

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.