EF1 tornado, Jones Creek to Lake Jackson, Texas, October 31, 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

October 31, 2015

Touchdown

3:32 AM CDT (08:32 UTC)

Lifted

3:35 AM CDT (08:35 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Brazoria County

Touchdown point

28.965, -95.444

Lift-off point

28.981, -95.435

Record number

1510310232-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HGX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Home was destroyed. Not best construction.
• Shallow trees uprooted. Numerous fences down.
• Refrigerator unit moved on rooftop. Numerous widows broken north facing.
• Minor roof damage to Brazos Mall.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Tornadoes formed along a near coastal county warm frontal boundary that was downstream of a central Texas cold front.

A small EF-1 tornado moved from a wildlife management area one mile southwest south of Jones Creek where it uprooted several large trees. The tornado then crossed Highway 36 and severely damaged a mobile home just north of the roadway. The tornado caused minor damage for approximately a mile toward the northeast before reaching the Brazos River, or one mile northeast of Jones Creek. Estimated peak wind speed was 90 mph.

An EF-0 tornado tracked from a subdivision south of the Brazos Mall knocking down fences and shallow rooted trees. The tornado then tracked across Hobby Lobby and the eastern end of the mall where it caused roof damage. It then continued into a subdivision to the northeast of the mall uprooting several large trees. Estimated peak wind speed was 85 mph.

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

31 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:01 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:57 UTC and running to 17:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:32 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 Houston radar (KHGX), 66 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:31 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

18 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.