Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2014

EF0 tornado, Kenefick to Cleveland, Texas, June 27, 2014

From Kenefick to Cleveland, this EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Liberty County on June 27, 2014, touching down at 11:24 AM CDT and reaching 25 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 27, 2014
Touchdown
11:24 AM CDT (16:24 UTC)
Lifted
11:27 AM CDT (16:27 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Liberty County
Touchdown point
30.350, -94.999
Lift-off point
30.350, -94.999
Record number
1406271024-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Meteorological conditions were favorable during the late morning hours for regional funnel cloud and tornado formation.

A brief tornado downed trees that caused minor damage to a home, its carport and garage.

The local law enforcement reported a tornado just east of the municipal airport.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:28 UTC16:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
16:45 UTC17:30 UTCTornado WarningHGX
16:53 UTC17:13 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 12:55 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

4.4 hours before the tornado, 175 km from the path. June 27, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z 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 986 joules per kilogram, CIN -86, lifted condensation level 881 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z 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 215 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.193958Sfc1 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
986 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-86 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1815 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
881 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
357 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

7.6 hours after it, 175 km from the path. June 28, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 395 joules per kilogram, CIN -106, lifted condensation level 789 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-06-28The 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 222 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
395 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-106 J/kg
Surface CAPE
527 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
789 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
222 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
257 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
2.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:21 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
16:07 UTCTORNADO6 Wnw KenefickLiberty, TXBRIEF TORNADO CAUSED MINOR DAMAGE WITH DOWNED TREES ON HOUSE AND DAMAGED CARPORT AND GARAGE.
16:24 UTCTORNADO1 Wsw ClevelandLiberty, TXTEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY REPORTS THE SITING OF A TORNADO ON FM 321 JUST NORTH OF TARKINGTON.
16:24 UTCTORNADO6 E ClevelandLiberty, TXTEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY REPORTS THE SIGHTING OF A TORNADO NEAR TARKINGTON.
16:24 UTCTORNADO6 E ClevelandLiberty, TXTEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY REPORTS THE SITING OF A TORNADO NEAR TARKINGTON.

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 27, 2014

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 2711:07 AM CDTEF0Liberty, TX0.020$15,000
June 271:46 PM CDTEF0Jefferson Davis Parish, LA4.6300$10,000
June 273:36 PM EDTEF0Lee, FL1.220$1,000
June 273:03 PM CDTEF1Dunn, WI7.0100$1.2 million
June 272:18 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO2.1100
June 274:40 PM MDTEF0Sherman, KS1.025
June 275:44 PM CDTEF0Thomas, KS2.025

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.