Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2014

EF0 tornado, Highland Bayou, Texas, June 26, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Galveston County on June 26, 2014, touching down at 2:22 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1.

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 26, 2014
Touchdown
2:22 PM CDT (19:22 UTC)
Lifted
2:24 PM CDT (19:24 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
County
Galveston County
Touchdown point
29.337, -94.965
Lift-off point
29.337, -94.965
Record number
1406261322-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Conditions were favorable during the day for funnel cloud and water spout formation across the area, and a couple of tornadoes were sighted.

A tornado destroyed a storage trailer and knocked down a fence near the intersection of Highland Bayou Drive and Mallard Street. There was one injury.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:20 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:20 UTC19:45 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:19 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

7.4 hours before the tornado, 191 km from the path. June 26, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z 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 1030 joules per kilogram, CIN -36, lifted condensation level 892 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 2014-06-26The 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 78 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
1030 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-36 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1005 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
892 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
143 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.6 hours after it, 191 km from the path. June 27, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 310 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 1059 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 2014-06-27The 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 -18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 2 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
310 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1624 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1059 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Galveston/Scholes (GLS), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:52 UTC8378150° 12 kt1015.6
18:52 UTC8578150° 15 kt1014.9
18:54 UTC8578140° 14 kt1014.9VCTS
19:13 UTC8477150° 21 kt271014.6
19:25 UTC8276190° 17 kt1014.9VCTS -RA
19:31 UTC8072220° 15 kt261015.2TS
19:45 UTC7872220° 13 kt231015.6VCTS
19:52 UTC7872210° 10 kt1015.2VCTS
19:59 UTC7871190° 14 kt1015.2
20:52 UTC7773190° 8 kt1014.9-RA

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 19 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:20 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
19:22 UTCTORNADO2 Wnw Bayou VistaGalveston, TXA TORNADO TORE A MOBILE HOME PARK APART AND CAUSED A HOME TO GO AIRBORNE ONTO SOME POWERLINES. 1 INJURY... 1 MOBILE HOME IS DESTROYED... AND 1 RV IS DESTROYED. ROOF DAMAGE WAS REPORTED AND POWER LINES WERE KNOCKED DOWN.
19:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Ssw Texas CityGalveston, TX
19:50 UTCTORNADO2 Wnw San LeonGalveston, TXA TORNADO TORE A MOBILE HOME PARK APART AND CAUSED A HOME TO GO AIRBORNE ONTO SOME POWERLINES.

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 26, 2014

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 264:55 PM MDTEF0Campbell, WY0.330$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.