Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2015

EF0 tornado, Wastella, Texas, April 22, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Nolan County on April 22, 2015, touching down at 6:20 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 22, 2015
Touchdown
6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)
Lifted
6:24 PM CDT (23:24 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Nolan County
Touchdown point
32.523, -100.663
Lift-off point
32.523, -100.657
Record number
1504221720-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level disturbance interacted with an unstable airmass to produce mostly hail across West Central Texas on April 22. Then on the 24th, a much stronger upper level disturbance and an unstable airmass, resulted in a more widespread severe weather outbreak across the region. These supercell thunderstorms produced plenty of hail and damaging thunderstorm winds across the area. As a thunderstorm was developing in northwest Nolan County, it produced a landspout tornado.

A person living near the four corners, in northwest Nolan County, videotaped a picturesque landspout tornado for a few minutes.

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.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 158 km from the path. April 22, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2015-04-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 164 joules per kilogram, CIN -398, lifted condensation level 1299 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2015-04-22The 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 110 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
164 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-398 J/kg
Surface CAPE
787 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1299 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
110 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 158 km from the path. April 23, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2015-04-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -87838, lifted condensation level 3557 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2015-04-23The 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 25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87838 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3557 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-11 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Sweetwater/Avenger Field Airport (SWW), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:35 UTC80.7862.690° 8 kt141010.5
21:55 UTC79.5262.4260° 9 kt1010.5
22:15 UTC78.86270° 9 kt1010.5
22:35 UTC78.861.7140° 7 kt1010.5
22:55 UTC79.1658110° 10 kt1010.2
23:15 UTC77.186380° 13 kt181009.8
23:35 UTC75.263.68110° 14 kt1009.5
23:55 UTC74.4864.4270° 5 kt1010.5TS
00:15 UTC69.856.8440° 11 kt231010.2VCTS
00:35 UTC66.5659.3660° 10 kt1010.2
00:55 UTC65.6659.72100° 5 kt1010.5
01:15 UTC65.6659100° 3 kt1010.2

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

The radar

The San Angelo radar (KSJT), 129 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:19 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
23:18 UTCTORNADOInadaleScurry, TXLANDSPOUT REPORTED BY PUBLIC WITH A PICTURE POSTED ON FACEBOOK MEDIA
23:20 UTCTORNADO6 Nnw RoscoeFisher, TX
23:43 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 Se GannonFisher, TXA FUNNEL CLOUD WAS REPORTED 1 MILE SOUTHEAST OF GANNON
00:23 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD7 Nnw NolanNolan, TX

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 22, 2015

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 226:18 PM CDTEF0Scurry, TX0.050
April 227:53 PM CDTEF0Floyd, TX0.150
April 229:50 PM CDTEF0Knox, TX0.230

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.