Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2015
EF0 tornado, Lefors, Texas, December 12, 2015
This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Gray County on December 12, 2015, touching down at 5:53 PM CST and reaching 50 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- December 12, 2015
- Touchdown
- 5:53 PM CST (23:53 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:54 PM CST (23:54 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.1 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Gray County
- Touchdown point
- 35.370, -100.660
- Lift-off point
- 35.370, -100.660
- Record number
- 1512121753-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Sufficient moisture for instability combined with wind shear to produce a favorable environment for severe thunderstorms across the southeast portion of the Texas Panhandle. Severe thunderstorms are quite rare for this geographical area during the month of December. Three hail events were documented along with one brief tornado.
A brief tornado touchdown was observed by a storm chaser. No damage was reported.
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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:18 UTC and running to 04:07 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:18 UTC | 04:07 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | AMA |
| 00:40 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
| 01:44 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AMA |
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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:36 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.
Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z
11.9 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. December 12, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -98150 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2850 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 41 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 109 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.0 K/km
Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z
0.1 hours after it, 96 km from the path. December 13, 2015.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 102 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 887 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 90 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 248 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 294 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The surface observations
Pampa (PPA), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:55 UTC | 62 | 52 | 160° 6 kt | 1003.7 | ||
| 22:15 UTC | 54 | 42 | 30° 11 kt | 15 | 1003.7 | |
| 22:35 UTC | 49.64 | 40.82 | 20° 14 kt | 19 | 1003.7 | |
| 22:55 UTC | 47.84 | 40 | 20° 13 kt | 1003.7 | ||
| 23:15 UTC | 45.5 | 38.48 | 30° 16 kt | 21 | 1003.7 | |
| 23:35 UTC | 44.42 | 38.3 | 10° 14 kt | 1004.1 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 43 | 37.76 | 10° 12 kt | 18 | 1004.4 | |
| 00:15 UTC | 42 | 37.76 | 20° 14 kt | 1003.7 | ||
| 00:35 UTC | 41 | 37.4 | 10° 14 kt | 19 | 1003.4 | |
| 00:55 UTC | 39.74 | 37.58 | 20° 10 kt | 1003.4 | -VCTSRA | |
| 01:15 UTC | 39.2 | 37.58 | 350° 11 kt | 16 | 1004.1 | -RA |
| 01:35 UTC | 38.66 | 37.4 | 10° 10 kt | 1003.7 | FG |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:52 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:53 UTC | TORNADO | 9 W Kellerville | Gray, TX | BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN AS SHOWN IN STORM CHASER VIDEO. |
| 00:31 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Lefors | Gray, TX | MOSTLY NICKEL WITH A FEW QUARTER SIZE STONES MIXED IN REPORTED IN LEFORS. |
| 00:32 UTC | HAIL 1 | 6 Sse Lefors | Gray, TX | QUARTER SIZE HAIL FELL ALONG FM 291. |
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 December 12, 2015
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 12 | 2:25 PM CST | EF2 | Smith, TX | 1.8 | 150 | |||
| December 12 | 3:54 PM CST | EF2 | Montgomery, TX | 2.2 | 100 | |||
| December 12 | 4:18 PM CST | EF0 | Franklin, TX | 5.3 | 775 | 2 | $2.0 million | |
| December 12 | 4:59 PM CST | EF1 | Red River, TX | 1.0 | 187 | $35,000 | ||
| December 12 | 5:14 PM CST | EF1 | Red River, TX | 0.1 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| December 12 | 6:03 PM CST | EF1 | Choctaw, OK | 3.3 | 250 | |||
| December 12 | 7:17 PM CST | EF2 | McCurtain, OK | 7.3 | 600 | 3 | $2.0 million |
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.