Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2016

EF0 tornado, Taft Southwest, Texas, May 30, 2016

Name: EF0 tornado, Taft Southwest, Texas, May 30, 2016
Start: 2016-05-30T14:54:00.000Z
End: 2016-05-30T14:55:00.000Z
Location: Taft Southwest, Texas

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across San Patricio County on May 30, 2016, touching down at 9:54 AM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 30, 2016
Touchdown: 9:54 AM CDT (14:54 UTC)
Lifted: 9:55 AM CDT (14:55 UTC)
On the ground: 1 minutes
Path length: 0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width: 25 yards (23 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $50,000
County: San Patricio County
Touchdown point: 27.972, -97.410
Lift-off point: 27.972, -97.401
Record number: 1605300854-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado produced damage on the southwest side of the city of Taft as a thunderstorm moved through during the morning hours of the 30th.

Storm survey concluded a weak EF-0 tornado occurred on the southwest side of the city of Taft. The tornado touched down at the intersection of Wilburn and Mexico Streets and traveled east for about six tenths of a mile. The tornado snapped large trees at the base, lifted shingles from a few homes, and tossed outdoor furniture.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Corpus Christi, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 30, 9:22 AM CDT, 32 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 30, 9:22 AM CDT, 32 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, May 30, 5:36 AM CDT, 4 hours 18 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
536 AM CDT MON MAY 30 2016

GMZ230-235-250-255-270-275-TXZ229>234-239>247-311045-
BAYS AND WATERWAYS FROM BAFFIN BAY TO PORT ARANSAS-
BAYS AND WATERWAYS FROM PORT ARANSAS TO PORT O\CONNOR-
COASTAL WATERS FROM BAFFIN BAY TO PORT ARANSAS OUT 20 NM-
COASTAL WATERS FROM PORT ARANSAS TO MATAGORDA SHIP CHANNEL OUT
20 NM-WATERS FROM BAFFIN BAY TO PORT ARANSAS FROM 20 TO 60 NM-
WATERS FROM PORT ARANSAS TO MATAGORDA SHIP CHANNEL FROM 20 TO
60 NM-LA SALLE-MCMULLEN-LIVE OAK-BEE-GOLIAD-VICTORIA-WEBB-DUVAL-
JIM WELLS-KLEBERG-NUECES-SAN PATRICIO-ARANSAS-REFUGIO-CALHOUN-
536 AM CDT MON MAY 30 2016

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTH TEXAS AND THE MIDDLE
TEXAS COASTAL WATERS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE AREA TODAY. THE
RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IS LOW.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY
AND SATURDAY/SUNDAY. SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS THUNDERSTORMS ARE
ANTICIPATED FOR THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL MAY
OCCUR THURSDAY AND FRIDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 30, 8:29 AM CDT, 1 hour 25 minutes before

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Special weather statement, May 30, 9:05 AM CDT, 49 minutes before

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Special weather statement, May 30, 9:28 AM CDT, 26 minutes before

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Local storm report, May 30, 9:45 AM CDT, 9 minutes before

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Special weather statement, May 30, 9:46 AM CDT, 8 minutes before

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Special weather statement, May 30, 9:49 AM CDT, 5 minutes before

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The surface observations

Ingleside (TFP), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 23 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:53 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2016 tornado in Texas Every tornado in Texas since 1950 Warnings in force in Texas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 30, 2016

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 30	2:05 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne, NE	0.8	30
May 30	2:07 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne, NE	0.5	30
May 30	2:18 PM MDT	EF1	Logan, CO	4.5	100
May 30	2:20 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne, NE	1.3	30
May 30	6:14 PM CDT	EF0	Grundy, MO	0.0	10
May 30	6:29 PM CDT	EF0	Grundy, MO	0.0	10

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.