Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2018

Unrated tornado, Jayton Kent Co Arpt, Texas, June 1, 2018

This Unrated tornado ran 0.0 miles across Kent County on June 1, 2018, touching down at 8:43 PM CDT and reaching 30 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
June 1, 2018
Touchdown
8:43 PM CDT (01:43 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kent County
Touchdown point
33.130, -100.540
Lift-off point
33.130, -100.540
Record number
1806011943-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Very hot temperatures characterized by highs of 102 to 107 degrees coupled with a dryline focused high based thunderstorm development near the Lubbock area this afternoon. As these storms moved east into richer moisture in Crosby County, one storm escalated significantly in intensity. This supercell thunderstorm delivered major wind and hail damage to Ralls and continued to move east through Crosbyton where several utility poles were downed. The storm then turned more southeast and struck Spur with very large hail before producing a small, brief tornado over open land south of Jayton. The greatest destruction occurred on the west side of Ralls where three large cotton compress buildings were completely destroyed by straight line winds determined to be as high as 90 mph.

Two separate reports of a very brief tornado were received about five miles south of Jayton. A storm spotter was able to photograph the tornado in the fading twilight. The tornado remained over open land.

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
18:00 UTC01:00 UTCHeat AdvisoryLUB
00:11 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
01:02 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
01:08 UTC01:39 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
01:41 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
01:52 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB

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 00:45 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

1.7 hours before the tornado, 204 km from the path. June 2, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2018-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1737 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 3466 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2018-06-02The 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 31 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
1737 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1946 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3466 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
10.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

10.3 hours after it, 204 km from the path. June 2, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2018-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 98 joules per kilogram, CIN -474, lifted condensation level 3097 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2018-06-02The 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 114 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.1939Sfc1 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
98 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-474 J/kg
Surface CAPE
64 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3097 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:43 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
00:03 UTCHAIL 2.75SpurDickens, TXREPORT RELAYED BY DICKENS COUNTY SO
01:09 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 707 N ClairemontKent, TXWIND SPEED ESTIMATED NEAR 70 MPH.
01:14 UTCHAIL 1.759 Nw ClairemontKent, TXREPORTED BY COOP OBSERVER.
01:56 UTCTSTM WND GST 705 Ese JaytonStonewall, TX
02:00 UTCHAIL 1.55 Wnw PeacockStonewall, TX

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 June 1, 2018

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 112:11 PM MDTEF2Washakie, WY1.0300$20,000
June 112:16 PM MDTEF2Johnson, WY1.0300
June 11:34 PM MDTEF0Campbell, WY1.025
June 11:41 PM MDTEF3Campbell, WY3.82002
June 11:55 PM MDTEF1Campbell, WY0.525$50,000
June 11:59 PM MDTEF1Campbell, WY4.650
June 14:26 PM MDTEF0Dunn, ND0.350
June 14:34 PM MDTEF2Dunn, ND3.5200$175,000
June 15:53 PM CDTEF0Morton, ND7.3100$5,000
June 15:55 PM CDTEF0McKenzie, ND0.350
June 16:25 PM CDTEF0Mercer, ND1.475
June 17:36 PM CDTEF0Walworth, SD0.110
June 19:14 PM CDTEF0Valley, NE0.040
June 19:59 PM CDTEF0Madison, NE0.150

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.