Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2015

EF0 tornado, Lake Granbury North, Texas, April 18, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Hood County on April 18, 2015, touching down at 6:47 PM CDT and reaching 30 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
April 18, 2015
Touchdown
6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)
Lifted
6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hood County
Touchdown point
32.512, -97.808
Lift-off point
32.516, -97.800
Record number
1504181747-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms developed along and ahead of a dryline located just west of the CWA in the afternoon hours. These storms eventually merged into a line that continued marching east across most of the region. Winds up to 70-80 mph and hail up to golf ball size were reported with these storms, and a brief EF-0 tornado occurred in Hood County.

Amateur radio operators reported a brief tornado northeast of Oak Trail Shores, on the east side of Lake Granbury / Brazos River.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:44 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:03 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:15 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchFWD
23:24 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
23:44 UTC00:03 UTCTornado WarningFWD

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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 60 km from the path. April 18, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2015-04-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 54 joules per kilogram, CIN -178, lifted condensation level 1216 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2015-04-18The 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 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
54 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-178 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1813 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1216 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
55 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

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 60 km from the path. April 19, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2015-04-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 996 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 1518 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2015-04-19The 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 -1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
996 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2340 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1518 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:17 UTCHAIL 1.752 W Palo PintoPalo Pinto, TXGOLF BALL SIZED HAIL ON HWY 180 JUST WEST OF PALO PINTO
22:50 UTCHAIL 1.75Palo PintoPalo Pinto, TXNUMEROUS REPORTS OF GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL ALONG HWY 180 THROUGH PALO PINTO
23:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGMillsapParker, TX3 TO 6 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN ON RIVER VIEW RD
23:25 UTCHAIL 1.752 N MillsapParker, TXGOLF BALL SIZED HAIL AT HWY 113 AT FINGER BANKS LN
23:34 UTCHAIL 1.5MillsapParker, TXPING PONG BALL SIZE HAIL NEAR MILLSAP
23:47 UTCTORNADO3 Nw Oak Trail ShoresHood, TX$$
23:47 UTCTORNADO3 Nw Oak Trail ShoresHood, TX
23:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 75GranburyHood, TX70 TO 80 MPH WINDS WITH A STEADY DOWN-POUR IN GRANBURY
00:05 UTCFLASH FLOOD12 Ne GranburyParker, TXMINOR STREET FLOODING, EST 55 MPH WIND, SMALL TREE LIMBS (1 IN) DOWN
00:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 58BenbrookTarrant, TX$$
00:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 58BenbrookTarrant, TX
00:15 UTCHAIL 1.256 W SpringtownParker, TXDELAYED REPORT FROM STORM SPOTTER OF HALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL.
00:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGBenbrookTarrant, TXNUMEROUS LARGE TREES SNAPPED AT BASE
00:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGWhite SettlementTarrant, TXDELAYED REPORT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA OF UPROOTED TREES NEAR WHITE SETTLEMENT.
00:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGCrowleyTarrant, TXSEVERAL LARGE TREES DOWN IN TOWN.
00:25 UTCTSTM WND GST 59Fort WorthTarrant, TXDOWNTOWN AREA
00:32 UTCTSTM WND GST 66Fort WorthTarrant, TXREPORTED AT FORT WORTH NAS ASOS
00:40 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sw CrowleyJohnson, TXTREES UPROOTED JUST SOUTHWEST OF CROWLEY IN TARRANT COUNTY

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 18, 2015

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 181:40 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
April 184:06 PM CDTEF1Woods, OK0.540
April 186:08 PM CDTEF0Simpson, MS0.025

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.