Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2018
EF1 tornado, Cove, Texas, October 31, 2018
This EF1 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Chambers County on October 31, 2018, touching down at 9:57 PM CDT and reaching 100 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- October 31, 2018
- Touchdown
- 9:57 PM CDT (02:57 UTC)
- Lifted
- 10:00 PM CDT (03:00 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Chambers County
- Touchdown point
- 29.827, -94.821
- Lift-off point
- 29.827, -94.821
- Record number
- 1810312057-01
The damage survey
13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HGX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.
- single wide trailer toppled. electricity pole snapped.
- Power pole cracked, bent. Roof damage shown in background.
- roof shingles gone. major fence damage.
- Fence down in multiple directions.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Strong damaging wind gusts and one tornado occurred in association with the passage of a squall line of thunderstorms.
An EF-1 tornado touched down and caused damage within the Lanai Subdivision along Interstate 10 between FM 3180 and FM 565. Several homes sustained minor roof damage and numerous trees were uprooted. There were some snapped trees and power lines. One large trailer was overturned.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:06 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:06 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | HGX |
| 21:29 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | HGX |
| 21:50 UTC | 22:25 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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.
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z
3.0 hours before the tornado, 160 km from the path. November 1, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1529 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2255 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 727 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 167 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 167 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.3
- Supercell composite
- 7.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z
9.0 hours after it, 160 km from the path. November 1, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 19 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 493 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 62 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -89 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -179 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The radar
The Houston radar (KHGX), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:00 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 E Garden Oaks | Harris, TX | TIME ESTIMATED FROM PUBLIC REPORT DURING DAMAGE SURVEY. TREE FELL ONTO A HOUSE AND MULTIPLE CARS DAMAGED BY DEBRIS. ESTIMATED 60 MPH. |
| 01:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ese Garden Oaks | Harris, TX | TREE ON HOUSE AND DAMAGE TO CARS AT 714 W. 39TH ST. ALSO BUILDING DAMAGE AT NORTH SHEPHERD AT GARDEN OAKS BLVD, AND 38TH STREET AT SUE BARNETT DRIVE. |
| 02:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Revlon | Harris, TX | TREE AND POWERLINES DOWN |
| 02:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Pasadena | Harris, TX | TREES DOWN AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS: SPENCER HIGHWAY AT WATTER ROAD NEAR BAYTOWN SEAFOOD, FRESA/PAULINE ON LAFFERTY RD, PASADENA BLVD AT WAYNE, 2110 BUCHANAN ST |
| 02:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ene Forestwood | Harris, TX | TWITTER REPORT, POSSIBLE TORNADO IN HERITAGE PARK POINTE (SE HARRIS CO) AT 950 PM. LOTS OF FLASHES OF LIGHTNING, WHISTLING NOISE. DAMAGE TO FENCE AND TREE BRANCHES DOWN. |
| 02:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Nassau Bay | Harris, TX | A LARGE SEGMENT FROM AN OLD TITAN IV ROCKET WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY TIED DOWN WAS DISPLACED 600 YARDS INTO A FIELD. ALSO, A VEHICLE HAD ITS WINDOES BLOWN OUT AT MISSION CONTROL PARKING LOT. DAMAGING WIND SPEEDS OF 65 MPH WE |
| 02:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Webster | Harris, TX | POTENTIAL MICROBURST IN WEBSTER, TRANSFORMER BLEW AND KNOCKED OUT POWER TO SURROUNDING AREA. |
| 02:55 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2.3 | Pasadena | Harris, TX | MINOR STREET FLOODING AT THESE LOCATIONS: OAK AVE AND CAVALIER, RED BLUFF AND SOUTHMORE, SOUTHMORE AT SOUTH PRESTON, 3500 RED BLUFF |
| 02:57 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Cove | Chambers, TX | AN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AND CAUSED DAMAGE WITHIN THE LANAI SUBDIVISION NEAR INTERSTATE 10. SEVERAL HOMES SUSTAINED MINOR ROOF DAMAGE WITH NUMEROUS UPROOTED TREES. SOME OF THESE TREES AND A POWER LINE WERE SNAPPED. A |
| 02:57 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Cove | Chambers, TX | AN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AND CAUSED DAMAGE WITHIN THE LANAI SUBDIVISION ON INTERSTATE 10 BETWEEN FM 3180 AND FM 565. SEVERAL HOMES SUSTAINED MINOR ROOF DAMAGE WITH NUMEROUS UPROOTED TREES. SOME OF THESE TREES AND A P |
| 03:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Cove | Chambers, TX | LARGE TREES SNAPPED NEAR TRUNK, 1 TO 3 INCH DIAMETER TREE BRANCHES BROKEN OFF. MINOR DAMAGE TO A HOME. |
| 03:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Baybrook Village | Harris, TX | TREE BRANCHES DOWN AND LIGHT POLE SNAPPED. |
| 03:00 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 40 | 1 Ese San Leon | Galveston, TX | MEASURED AT STATION EPTT2. |
| 03:00 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 40 | 1 Ese San Leon | Gmz335, TX | MESONET STATION EPTT2, 1 ESE SAN LEON. |
| 03:05 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 50 | 3 Ene Hillcrest | Galveston, TX | MESONET STATION AU322, 2 ENE HILLCREST. |
| 03:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Texas City | Galveston, TX | MINOR STRUCTURE DAMAGE OFF OF PALMER HIGHWAY. AN EXPOSED, NON-ANCHORED MOBILE TRAILER WAS OVERTURNED AT HANEY PARK OFF OF DIKE DRIVE. WIND GUSTS WERE ESTIMATED BETWEEN 65 TO 70 MPH. |
| 03:27 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 43 | 1 Ssw Nadeau | Galveston, TX | MEASURED AT TEXAS CITY XTEX WEATHERFLOW SITE. |
| 03:27 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 43 | 3 E La Marque | Galveston, TX | MESONET STATION XTEX, 2 E LA MARQUE. |
| 03:45 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 45 | 1 Ene Stingaree | Galveston, TX | MEASURED AT THE CRAB LAKE XCRB WEATHERFLOW SITE. |
| 03:45 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 45 | 19 E San Leon | Galveston, TX | MESONET STATION XCRB, 19 E SAN LEON. |
| 03:55 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 41 | 2 Ene Stingaree | Galveston, TX | ESTIMATED OFF OF WEATHERFLOW, SITE AT CRAB LAKE SUSTAINED WINDS SPEED APPROXIMATELY 32 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 41 MPH. |
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 October 31, 2018
21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 31 | 2:56 PM CDT | EF0 | Colorado, TX | 1.4 | 100 | |||
| October 31 | 5:39 PM EDT | EF1 | Hardin, KY | 2.5 | 80 | $500,000 | ||
| October 31 | 6:48 PM CDT | EF1 | Nacogdoches, TX | 1.5 | 100 | $30,000 | ||
| October 31 | 7:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Hardin, TX | 2.1 | 189 | $76,000 | ||
| October 31 | 8:01 PM CDT | EF0 | Jasper, TX | 0.7 | 150 | $2,000 | ||
| October 31 | 8:10 PM CDT | EF1 | Jasper, TX | 8.5 | 260 | $30,000 | ||
| October 31 | 9:40 PM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 1.5 | 280 | $5,000 | ||
| October 31 | 9:54 PM CDT | EF0 | Brazoria, TX | 0.1 | 30 | $30,000 | ||
| October 31 | 11:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 16.4 | 600 | $50,000 | ||
| October 31 | 11:29 PM CDT | EF2 | Rapides Parish, LA | 37.9 | 500 | 2 | $1.4 million | |
| October 31 | 11:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 2.5 | 300 | $5,000 | ||
| October 31 | 11:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 10.1 | 500 | $17,000 | ||
| October 31 | 11:50 PM CDT | EF1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 6.5 | 900 | $15,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:10 AM CDT | EF1 | Rapides Parish, LA | 9.5 | 300 | $7,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:15 AM CDT | EF1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 0.5 | 126 | $10,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:16 AM CDT | EF0 | Cameron Parish, LA | 0.1 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:17 AM CDT | EF2 | Allen Parish, LA | 13.3 | 900 | $40,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:22 AM CDT | EF1 | Rapides Parish, LA | 3.3 | 600 | $10,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:25 AM CDT | EF1 | Rapides Parish, LA | 9.2 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:30 AM CDT | EF1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 1.0 | 75 | $5,000 | ||
| October 31 | 12:50 AM CDT | EF2 | Avoyelles Parish, LA | 7.8 | 800 | $410,000 |
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.