Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2016

EF0 tornado, Turkey, Texas, April 28, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Hall County on April 28, 2016, touching down at 5:40 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 28, 2016
Touchdown
5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hall County
Touchdown point
34.347, -100.819
Lift-off point
34.347, -100.819
Record number
1604281640-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level low to the west of the region combined with a dryline along the Interstate-27 corridor to create scattered thunderstorms on the afternoon of the 28th. A few of these storms became severe as they tracked over the eastern South Plains and Rolling Plains. A landspout tornado was observed near one of these severe storms in Hall County.

A storm chaser captured video of a very brief landspout tornado in Hall County.

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 tornado watch, issued at 20:46 UTC and running to 01:58 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:46 UTC01:58 UTCTornado WatchLUB
21:49 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
22:29 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
23:13 UTC23:42 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
03:54 UTC11:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLUB

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:07 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

10.7 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. April 28, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-04-28Temperature 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 -96457, lifted condensation level 1215 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-04-28The 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 433 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-96457 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1215 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
433 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
426 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

1.3 hours after it, 127 km from the path. April 29, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 699 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 1006 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-04-29The 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 290 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 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
699 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1628 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1006 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
290 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
462 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
12.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:40 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
21:40 UTCHAIL 1.75South PlainsFloyd, TXMEDIA STORM CHASER - REPORT NEAR SOUTH PLAINS
22:08 UTCHAIL 1.75QuitaqueBriscoe, TX
22:10 UTCHAIL 1.25Caprock Canyon SpBriscoe, TXDENTS IN EQUIPMENT... MINOR DAMAGE
22:15 UTCHAIL 1.52 S TurkeyHall, TXLASTED FOR 20 MINUTES
22:16 UTCHAIL 1.75Caprock Canyon SpBriscoe, TX
22:24 UTCHAIL 1TurkeyHall, TX
22:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGTurkeyHall, TXLOTS OF BROKEN WINDOWS... WINDSHIELDS... LOTS OF BROKEN TREE LIMBS
22:30 UTCHAIL 1.75TurkeyHall, TXLOTS OF BROKEN WINDOWS... WINDSHIELDS... LOTS OF BROKEN TREE LIMBS
22:40 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Se TurkeyHall, TXVIDEO FROM STORM CHASER. POSSIBLE BRIEF CONTINUOUS CIRCULATION FROM CLOUD BASE TO GROUND.
22:51 UTCHAIL 23 E FloydadaFloyd, TX
23:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 S EstellineHall, TXLOTS OF TREE LIMBS DOWN... WIND GUSTS ESTIMATED TO BE AROUND 60 MPH.
23:25 UTCHAIL 13 S EstellineHall, TX
00:30 UTCHAIL 1Cee VeeCottle, TX

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 28, 2016

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 284:26 PM EDTEF1Boone, IN0.240$35,000

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.