Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2016
EF0 tornado, Browndale, Texas, May 27, 2016
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jasper County on May 27, 2016, touching down at 1:28 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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
- May 27, 2016
- Touchdown
- 1:28 PM CDT (18:28 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:29 PM CDT (18:29 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.1 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $2,000
- County
- Jasper County
- Touchdown point
- 31.066, -94.130
- Lift-off point
- 31.066, -94.130
- Record number
- 1605271228-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A short wave moved into the area along the base of a larger trough. This brought a line of storms from north of Houston into deep Southeast Texas that slowly moved through. Flash flooding occurred in Tyler county that lead an earthen dam to break north of Woodville. Moderate flooding occurred along the Neches as the water drained.
A motorist driving over the Sam Rayburn Dam captured a video of a tornado south of the dam near the Angelina River. Local Law enforcement reported a few trees down near Ebenezer with no structures damaged.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 07:38 UTC | 12:20 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | LCH |
| 10:01 UTC | 11:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | LCH |
| 11:03 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | LCH |
| 12:47 UTC | 13:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | LCH |
| 18:53 UTC | 19:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
| 18:56 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | LCH |
| 19:05 UTC | 23:20 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | LCH |
| 19:30 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
| 20:23 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
| 20:25 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | LCH |
| 21:36 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | LCH |
| 23:40 UTC | 05:30 UTC | Flood Warning | LCH |
| 02:52 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Flood Warning | LCH |
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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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.
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z
6.5 hours before the tornado, 138 km from the path. May 27, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2178 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2865 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 565 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 151 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 243 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.1
- Supercell composite
- 6.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z
5.5 hours after it, 138 km from the path. May 28, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 447 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -299 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -395 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The surface observations
Jasper County-Bell Field Airport (JAS), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:35 UTC | 74.3 | 69 | 110° 10 kt | 16 | 1010.8 | -RA |
| 16:55 UTC | 73.76 | 69.62 | 120° 9 kt | 17 | 1010.5 | RA |
| 17:15 UTC | 74.48 | 70.52 | 120° 8 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 17:35 UTC | 76 | 71.24 | 120° 10 kt | 14 | 1009.8 | |
| 17:55 UTC | 77.72 | 71.78 | 130° 15 kt | 22 | 1009.5 | |
| 18:15 UTC | 78.44 | 71.6 | 130° 9 kt | 16 | 1010.2 | |
| 18:35 UTC | 78 | 71.24 | 160° 8 kt | 14 | 1009.8 | -RA |
| 18:55 UTC | 77.54 | 71 | 160° 4 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 19:15 UTC | 76.46 | 70.16 | 10° 10 kt | 15 | 1010.8 | RA |
| 19:35 UTC | 70.34 | 67 | 310° 9 kt | 1012.5 | ||
| 19:55 UTC | 69 | 66.2 | 10° 15 kt | 19 | 1011.5 | -RA |
| 20:15 UTC | 68.18 | 65.66 | 30° 13 kt | 1010.8 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:29 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Ssw Ebenezer | Jasper, TX | SHERIFFS DEPT REPORTED TREES DOWN ON COUNTY ROADS 23, 28, 29 AND 62. ALL ROADS ARE IN NORTHWEST JASPER COUNTY. |
| 18:28 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ene Ebenezer | Jasper, TX | PUBLIC DRIVING OVER THE RAYBURN DAM CAPTURED VIDEO OF A TORNADO SOUTH OF THE DAM NEAR THE ANGELINA RIVER. OCCURRED IN A SPARSELY POPULATED AREA...BUT LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED TREES DOWN NEAR EBENEZER...INCLUDING SO |
| 18:56 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Pineland | Sabine, TX | TREES REPORTED DOWN ALL OVER THE COUNTY... POWER LINES DOWN WITH TREES... AND POWER POLES LEANING OVER |
| 19:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Pineland | Sabine, TX | TREES REPORTED DOWN ALL OVER THE COUNTY... POWER LINES DOWN WITH TREES... AND POWER POLES LEANING OVER |
| 19:10 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Pineland | Sabine, TX | FLOODING REPORTED OVER HWY 28... 66... FM 2866... HWY 83E OF PINELAND |
| 19:22 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Broaddus | San Augustine, TX | TREES DOWN ON HIGHWAY 83 NEAR OLD 705 ONLY SHOULDER OF ROAD WAS PASSABLE |
| 19:37 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Woodville | Tyler, TX | EM REPORTS HWYS 69, 190 AND 256 AT WOODVILLE CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING. |
| 19:41 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Se Ebenezer | Jasper, TX | SHERIFFS DEPT REPORTS PORTIONS OF COUNTY RD 62 IMPASSIBLE. |
| 19:45 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 6 S San Augustine | San Augustine, TX | FLOODING REPORTED CLEAR BRANCH SIX MILES SOUTH OF SAN AUGUSTINE OFF HWY 96 ON CR 410 |
| 20:23 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 N Jasper | Jasper, TX | SHERIFFS DEPT REPORTS TREE DOWN ON HWY 190W. |
| 20:23 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 W Jasper | Jasper, TX | SHERIFFS DEPT REPORTS TREE DOWN ON HWY 190W. |
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 27, 2016
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 27 | 2:14 PM CDT | EF0 | Red Lake, MN | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 2:57 PM CDT | EF0 | Clay, MN | 0.1 | 75 | |||
| May 27 | 3:01 PM CDT | EF0 | Clay, MN | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 2:43 PM MDT | Unrated | Kiowa, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 2:51 PM MDT | EF0 | Greeley, KS | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| May 27 | 2:55 PM MDT | Unrated | Kiowa, CO | 1.0 | 100 | |||
| May 27 | 3:04 PM MDT | Unrated | Kiowa, CO | 0.2 | 75 | |||
| May 27 | 3:12 PM MDT | EF0 | Greeley, KS | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| May 27 | 4:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Wichita, KS | 0.9 | 25 | |||
| May 27 | 5:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Butler, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 5:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Fond du Lac, WI | 4.5 | 330 | $100,000 | ||
| May 27 | 5:42 PM CDT | EF0 | Lane, KS | 1.9 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 6:16 PM CDT | EF0 | Lane, KS | 1.3 | 50 | |||
| May 27 | 6:21 PM CDT | EF0 | Ness, KS | 0.8 | 50 |
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.