EF1 tornado, Alice, Texas, May 27, 2014

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 27, 2014

Touchdown

6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)

Lifted

6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

550 yards (503 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.6 million

County

Jim Wells County

Touchdown point

27.752, -98.054

Lift-off point

27.719, -98.063

Record number

1405271730-01

40 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CRP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Several large tree trunks snapped around home.
• Large tree limbs snapped at top of trees
• Total loss of north facing roof deck.
• Sheet metal from metal building thrown 100 yards and wrapped around power pole.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A mesoscale convective system moved into southeast Texas during the morning hours on May 27th. This left an outflow boundary located over south-central Texas by the afternoon. A strong upper level low pressure system was moving across north Texas during the day and a strong upper level jet streak enhanced the low to mid level shear in the atmosphere during the afternoon. A supercell developed south of San Antonio near a merger between the outflow boundary and sea-breeze boundary. The supercell moved to the south-southeast and then south along Highway 281 from Pleasanton down through Alice. The supercell produced large hail at times over Live Oak County. The storm intensified as it approached Alice, causing damage due to large hail and high winds. An EF1 tornado moved across the southeast side of Alice. The storm weakened briefly after leaving Alice but again organized as it moved toward the community of Premont in southern Jim Wells County. Another EF1 tornado occurred near Premont.

An EF1 tornado touched down on the southeast side of the city of Alice just south of the intersection of Highway 359 and Stadium Road. The tornado traveled 2.3 miles and lifted just north of the intersection of County Road 1352 and County Road 382. This tornado produced shingle damage to the roof tops of several homes, lifted the roof deck off of several homes, and snapped a dozen power poles at their mid-point. The tornado destroyed a metal building and a portable building, broke overhead doors, blew out the siding of several metal buildings, and downed numerous trees.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:56 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:41 UTC and running to 01:52 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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.

Alice International Airport (ALI), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:31 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

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

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.