Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2016

Unrated tornado, Glazier, Texas, May 26, 2016

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Hemphill County on May 26, 2016, touching down at 8:10 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 mph

    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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated
Date
May 26, 2016
Touchdown
8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)
Lifted
8:13 PM CDT (01:13 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hemphill County
Touchdown point
36.050, -100.060
Lift-off point
36.051, -100.058
Record number
1605261910-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Most of the severe thunderstorms on the 26th were east in Oklahoma where the higher moisture and greater instability was located. Nevertheless, a sharpening dyline across the eastern Texas Panhandle during the late afternoon and into the evening resulted in the development of a hail producing thunderstorm in Lipscomb County. A brief tornado was witnessed by spotters near Higgins.

A brief rope tornado was witnessed by a storm spotter approximately 5 miles south-southwest of Higgins. An EF-U rating was assigned as the tornado remained in open grassland.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:35 UTC02:18 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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), 00:00Z

1.2 hours before the tornado, 174 km from the path. May 27, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 13 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 4192 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2016-05-27The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
13 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
66 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
4192 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

10.8 hours after it, 174 km from the path. May 27, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-05-27Temperature 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 -84453, lifted condensation level 1908 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 2016-05-27The 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 155 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
-84453 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1908 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Canadian (HHF), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:15 UTC8760.44180° 9 kt191002.7
23:35 UTC85.6460.44160° 15 kt181002.4
23:55 UTC8563170° 13 kt201002.4
00:15 UTC85.2864.76170° 15 kt191002.4
00:35 UTC85.4665.48180° 14 kt1002VCTS
00:55 UTC8664.4190° 17 kt231002
01:15 UTC83.8463.86190° 13 kt181002.4
01:35 UTC82.5866.2190° 13 kt161002VCTS
01:55 UTC81.3267200° 18 kt221001.4TS
02:15 UTC79.3466.74180° 12 kt201002TS
02:35 UTC77.3667.28170° 10 kt151002
02:55 UTC77.5470.88190° 12 kt231003

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 175 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:10 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
01:13 UTCTORNADO5 Ssw HigginsHemphill, TXLATE REPORT...BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN OF A ROPE TORNADO SSW OF HIGGINS.
01:17 UTCHAIL 1.253 Wnw HigginsLipscomb, TXLATE REPORT OF HALF-DOLLAR SIZED HAIL NORTHWEST OF HIGGINS.
01:47 UTCHAIL 1AllisonWheeler, TXLATE REPORT...BRIEF PERIOD OF QUARTER SIZED HAIL. TIME ESTIMATED FROM DOPPLER RADAR.

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 May 26, 2016

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2612:30 PM CDTEF1Brazos, TX2.950$7.0 million
May 262:03 PM CDTEF0Riley, KS0.025
May 262:20 PM CDTEF1Pottawatomie, KS5.5100
May 263:03 PM CDTEF0Washington, TX0.330$10,000
May 263:20 PM CDTEF0Grimes, TX0.130$50,000
May 263:28 PM CDTEF1Grimes, TX0.150$100,000
May 263:29 PM CDTEF2Grimes, TX1.3100$200,000
May 264:00 PM CDTEF0Shawnee, KS0.025
May 264:06 PM CDTEF0Shawnee, KS1.850
May 265:03 PM CDTEF0Johnson, MO1.425
May 265:52 PM CDTEF1Montgomery, TX1.0300$100,000
May 265:05 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO0.050
May 265:23 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO4.125
May 268:01 PM CDTEF1Coleman, TX5.4400

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.