Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2016
EF0 tornado, Weston, Texas, April 29, 2016
This EF0 tornado ran 1.3 miles across Collin County on April 29, 2016, touching down at 4:53 PM CDT and reaching 65 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 of property damage.
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
- April 29, 2016
- Touchdown
- 4:53 PM CDT (21:53 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:54 PM CDT (21:54 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 1.3 miles (2.2 km)
- Path width
- 65 yards (59 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $30,000
- County
- Collin County
- Touchdown point
- 33.363, -96.723
- Lift-off point
- 33.379, -96.735
- Record number
- 1604291553-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A warm front and a dry line combined to produce another round of severe weather across the region. Three tornadoes occurred on April 29th producing relatively minor damage equivalent to EF-0 damage. The big story during this period was the 6 flash flood fatalities in the Palestine area in Anderson County on the night of the 29th.
A tornado was observed near the city of Celina on the afternoon of the 29th. This tornado began near a wedding venue, about 2 miles east of Celina High School. Several trees were damaged on this property, with the structure sustaining roof damage. The tornado then continued moving to the northwest for about a mile, before dissipating.
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 18:08 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:08 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | FWD |
| 21:45 UTC | 22:28 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z
9.9 hours before the tornado, 80 km from the path. April 29, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2369 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -51 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2951 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 606 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 216 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 212 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.6
- Supercell composite
- 14.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z
2.1 hours after it, 80 km from the path. April 30, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1203 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -101 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1100 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1029 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 115 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 136 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 4.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
The surface observations
Mc Kinney (TKI), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:53 UTC | 77 | 74 | 120° 7 kt | 1002.7 | -RA BR | |
| 20:18 UTC | 78 | 75 | 130° 6 kt | 1002 | BR | |
| 20:53 UTC | 77 | 74 | 150° 10 kt | 1001.7 | BR | |
| 21:24 UTC | 76 | 73 | 140° 15 kt | 22 | 1000.3 | VCTS RA BR |
| 21:33 UTC | 75 | 73 | 150° 19 kt | 24 | 1000 | VCTS RA BR |
| 21:38 UTC | 75 | 73 | 160° 19 kt | 27 | 1000.7 | -TSRA BR |
| 21:51 UTC | 73.4 | 71.6 | 160° 16 kt | 29 | 1000.7 | -TSRA BR |
| 21:53 UTC | 74 | 72 | 160° 14 kt | 22 | 1000.7 | -TSRA BR |
| 22:01 UTC | 74 | 72 | 160° 13 kt | 1000.7 | TS BR | |
| 22:16 UTC | 73 | 69 | 160° 23 kt | 30 | 1000.3 | VCTS |
| 22:25 UTC | 71 | 69 | 170° 22 kt | 32 | 1000 | +TSRA BR |
| 22:34 UTC | 71 | 69 | 170° 15 kt | 28 | 1000.3 | -TSRA BR |
| 22:53 UTC | 71 | 69 | 170° 15 kt | 1000.3 | VCTS -RA | |
| 23:01 UTC | 70 | 68 | 170° 13 kt | 1000.3 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:50 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:36 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Tom Bean | Grayson, TX | NICKLE SIZE HAIL REPORTED IN TOM BEAN. |
| 21:19 UTC | TORNADO | Dorchester | Grayson, TX | $$ |
| 21:29 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Denison | Grayson, TX | $$ |
| 21:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ne Celina | Collin, TX | BARN WITH ROOF DAMAGE NEAR COUNTY ROAD 133 AND COUNTY ROAD 134 NEAR CELINA. |
| 22:15 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 S Denton | Denton, TX | QUARTER SIZE HAIL REPORTED 3 MILES SOUTH OF DENTON. |
| 22:18 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 N Denton | Denton, TX | GOLFBALL SIZE HAIL 2 MILES NORTH OF DENTON. |
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 29, 2016
15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 29 | 3:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Monroe, MS | 5.2 | 150 | $10,000 | ||
| April 29 | 3:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Comanche, OK | 4.0 | 700 | $10,000 | ||
| April 29 | 3:41 PM CDT | EF0 | Monroe, MS | 0.9 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| April 29 | 3:54 PM CDT | EF0 | Caddo, OK | 0.5 | 20 | $2,000 | ||
| April 29 | 4:03 PM CDT | EF1 | Grady, OK | 12.0 | 1,000 | $35,000 | ||
| April 29 | 5:33 PM CDT | EF0 | Bosque, TX | 0.3 | 20 | |||
| April 29 | 5:50 PM CDT | EF2 | Smith, TX | 1.0 | 400 | $500,000 | ||
| April 29 | 5:55 PM CDT | EF2 | Smith, TX | 25.9 | 3,221 | 2 | $375,000 | |
| April 29 | 6:28 PM CDT | EF0 | Van Zandt, TX | 2.6 | 50 | |||
| April 29 | 7:33 PM CDT | EF2 | Cherokee, TX | 7.2 | 820 | $700,000 | ||
| April 29 | 7:54 PM CDT | EF1 | Cherokee, TX | 1.1 | 150 | $15,000 | ||
| April 29 | 10:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Harrison, TX | 5.6 | 820 | |||
| April 29 | 10:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Harrison, TX | 5.8 | 200 | $50,000 | ||
| April 29 | 12:34 AM CDT | EF1 | Harrison, TX | 6.6 | 350 | $30,000 | ||
| April 29 | 12:41 AM CDT | EF1 | Lafayette, AR | 1.7 | 900 |
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.