EF1 tornado, Seadrift, Texas, March 29, 2018

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 29, 2018

Touchdown

1:39 AM CDT (06:39 UTC)

Lifted

1:40 AM CDT (06:40 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Calhoun County

Touchdown point

28.419, -96.717

Lift-off point

28.420, -96.712

Record number

1803290039-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CRP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

During the early evening hours on March 28th, isolated severe thunderstorms developed across northern Mexico and Deep South Texas. Storms formed within an environment of very unstable air and very strong vertical wind shear in advance of an approaching cold front with assistance from an approaching upper level disturbance. Severe storms occurred across the Brush Country during the evening. The storms congealed into a squall line late in the evening. Large hail and winds of at least 60 mph were observed with several of these storms across the Brush Country. During the early morning hours on March 29th, the squall line intensified as it advanced into the Coastal Bend and the Victoria area. Widespread winds between 40 and 60 mph were observed behind the squall line during this time. Sufficient low level shear in the lowest several thousand feet existed to produce mesovortices along the squall line. Several of these mesovortices produced tornadoes across the Coastal Bend during the early morning hours.

An EF-1 tornado touched down in north part of the community of Seadrift on Oakland Avenue and traveled to the east-northeast to North 3rd Street. The tornado flipped several mobile homes and completely destroyed one mobile home near the intersection of West Denver Avenue and North 4th Street. A truck and boat were capsized. Several homes experienced roof damage and several outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. Eight homes were destroyed with one home sustaining major damage and two homes receiving minor damage. Estimated peak wind from the tornado was 110 mph.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:22 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:38 UTC and running to 08:00 UTC.

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 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.

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:38 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

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

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.