Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2018

EF0 tornado, Erin, Texas, January 22, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Jasper County on January 22, 2018, touching down at 2:10 AM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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.

  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
January 22, 2018
Touchdown
2:10 AM CST (08:10 UTC)
Lifted
2:11 AM CST (08:11 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
30.760, -93.890
Lift-off point
30.767, -93.892
Record number
1801220210-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front pushed through Southeast Texas and into a humid and unstable air mass. Showers and storms developed with one tornado occurring.

A weak tornado briefly touched down on Country Road 451, destroying one barn and damaging the roof of another barn. The path length was around half a mile. Several trees had the tops twisted off.

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.

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 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), 00:00Z

8.2 hours before the tornado, 98 km from the path. January 22, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2018-01-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 425 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 620 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2018-01-22The 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 178 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
425 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
705 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
178 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
233 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

3.8 hours after it, 98 km from the path. January 22, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2018-01-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 360 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 533 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2018-01-22The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
360 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
15 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
533 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:11 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
08:10 UTCTORNADO 03 Sse RoganvilleJasper, TXA TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN ON COUNTY ROAD 451, DESTROYING ONE BARN AND DAMAING THE ROOF OF ANOTHER BARN. THE PATH LENGTH WAS AROUND HALF A MILE. SEVERAL TREES HAD THE TOPS OF THEM TWISTED OFF.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 22, 2018

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 2212:49 AM CSTEF1Faulkner, AR2.7150$100,000
January 221:12 AM CSTEF0Franklin, MO0.225
January 222:23 AM CSTEF0Vernon Parish, LA0.010$15,000
January 229:16 AM CSTEF1Covington, MS7.32502$45,000

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.