EF1 tornado, Premont to La Gloria, 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

7:45 PM CDT (00:45 UTC)

Lifted

7:52 PM CDT (00:52 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.5 km)

Path width

650 yards (594 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Jim Wells County

Touchdown point

27.365, -98.128

Lift-off point

27.289, -98.138

Record number

1405271845-01

10 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 100 mph.

• Large tree uprooted facing east.
• Large tree branches snapped at the top.
• Several poles snapped at the top.
• One power pole leaning south.

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 EF0 tornado touched down in the city of Premont near the intersection of Northwest 3rd Street and South Cora Street. The tornado traveled south and briefly produced EF1 damage near Southeast 5th Street and Southern Bernice Street. Partial roof damage was observed to a few homes, numerous large tree limbs were snapped, and one tree was completely uprooted. The tornado continues south of the Premont city limits and regained EF1 status near the intersection of Highway 281 and East County Road 401. Numerous power poles were snapped at their mid-point and several poles were leaning in a southerly direction.

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

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.

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 0.02 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.

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:45 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.