EF1 tornado, Corpus Christi, Texas, May 24, 2015

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 24, 2015

Touchdown

1:27 AM CDT (06:27 UTC)

Lifted

1:30 AM CDT (06:30 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Nueces County

Touchdown point

27.750, -97.430

Lift-off point

27.783, -97.409

Record number

1505240027-01

A strong upper level disturbance moved out of northeast Mexico during the evening of the 23rd and into South Texas on the morning of the 24th. As the system reached northeast Mexico, a line of strong thunderstorms formed during the afternoon hours of the 23rd. The line of storms moved east across Laredo and then through the Brush Country during the evening hours. The storms produced flash flooding in Laredo. The line of thunderstorms intensified during the early morning hours of the 24th when it reached the Coastal Bend. The storms caused damage to trees and power lines across the Coastal Bend.

The tornado touched down near Cunningham Middle School just north of Golihar Road where trees were snapped and uprooted. A residence just north of the school at the corner of Hudson and Stafford Streets sustained moderate roof damage and a had a fence blown down. The tornado continued to the northeast crossing Horne Road and parallel to Sarita Street. Dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted with many falling on homes or vehicles. Several residences suffered roof and siding damage in this area. Further northeast, the tornado hit a grocery store on Tarlton Street destroying a sign and blowing several windows out. Tree and minor roof damaged was observed northeast of this area as the tornado crossed Baldwin and Morgan Avenues. The last evidence of the tornado was at 16th Street and Crosstown Expressway where a nursery sustained damage and a baseball dugout was destroyed. Maximum winds were estimated around 90 mph.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:31 UTC and running to 09:00 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:47 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), 9 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:26 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 2015 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

17 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.