Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2016

EF0 tornado, Ft Griffin, Texas, May 29, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 1.7 miles across Shackelford County on May 29, 2016, touching down at 9:28 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
May 29, 2016
Touchdown
9:28 PM CDT (02:28 UTC)
Lifted
9:36 PM CDT (02:36 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
1.7 miles (2.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Shackelford County
Touchdown point
32.893, -99.363
Lift-off point
32.889, -99.334
Record number
1605292028-01

What the Weather Service recorded

The dryline interacting with an unstable airmass, producing severe thunderstorms on May 26-27. As the airmass remained unstable, a dissipating front and dryline continued to produce rounds of severe thunderstorms on May 28 and 29. One of these supercell thunderstorms produced a strong tornado east southeast of Junction. Many reports of large hail and damaging winds were reported along with a few tornadoes and flash flooding.

A member of the public took a photo of this tornado that was illuminated by lightning. This tornado was quite tall.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:10 UTC and running to 07:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:10 UTC07:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchSJT
01:35 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
02:10 UTC03:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
02:12 UTC03:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
02:25 UTC05:15 UTCFlood AdvisorySJT
02:35 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WarningSJT
02:48 UTC03:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
03:10 UTC04:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
08:43 UTC14:23 UTCFlood WarningSJT

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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), 00:00Z

2.5 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. May 30, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-05-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1610 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 1577 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2016-05-30The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1610 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4716 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1577 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

9.5 hours after it, 192 km from the path. May 30, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-05-30Temperature 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 -44005, lifted condensation level 1625 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2016-05-30The 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 92 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-44005 J/kg
Surface CAPE
29 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
112 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:28 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
01:09 UTCTORNADO5 Nw ElbertThrockmorton, TXTORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT 5 MILES NORTHWEST OF ELBERT.
01:30 UTCHAIL 1.2510 N ThrockmortonThrockmorton, TXHAILED FOR 45 MINUTES
01:44 UTCHAIL 1HawleyJones, TX
01:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 622 Nne WeinertHaskell, TX
02:34 UTCHAIL 2.55 E AbileneTaylor, TXIT HAILED FROM 924 TIL 934 PM. LOTS OF HAIL COVERING THE GROUND. LARGEST WAS TENNIS BALL SIZE HAIL.
03:18 UTCHAIL 1.75ClydeCallahan, TX
03:59 UTCTSTM WND GST 605 S BreckenridgeStephens, TXSPOTTER ESTIMATES WIND GUST OF 60 MPH WITH POWER OUT IN THE TOWN OF BRECKENRIDGE.
04:44 UTCFLASH FLOOD6 S BreckenridgeStephens, TXPUBLIC REPORT OF WATER ACROSS FM 576 ABOUT 6 MILES SOUTH OF BRECKENRIDGE.
04:45 UTCFLASH FLOODBairdCallahan, TXSEVERAL WATER RESCUES WERE CONDUCTED IN CALLAHAN COUNTY...AS MOTORISTS ATTEMPTED TO DRIVE THROUGH FAIRLY DEEP WATER OVER ROADWAYS. SOME HOMES WERE PARTIALLY FLOODED IN BAIRD. A NUMBER OF COUNTY ROADS WERE FLOODED. A FEW

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 29, 2016

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 298:09 PM CDTEF0Throckmorton, TX0.025

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.