Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2018

EF0 tornado, Mc Camey, Texas, October 8, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Upton County on October 8, 2018, touching down at 5:15 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 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
October 8, 2018
Touchdown
5:15 PM CDT (22:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Upton County
Touchdown point
31.189, -102.230
Lift-off point
31.189, -102.230
Record number
1810081615-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level trough was centered near the Four Corners region which brought an increase in upper level lift across West Texas. The area was in a favorable position under the upper level jet stream which also aided in lift. A plentiful supply of moisture was in place and wind shear was favorable for thunderstorm development across West Texas. These conditions resulted in strong winds, hail, flash flooding, and a tornado.

A thunderstorm moved across Upton County and produced a tornado near McCamey. The tornado touched down four miles north of McCamey for a couple of seconds in an open field then lifted. It was classified as an EF-0.

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
21:28 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
22:02 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
22:03 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
22:49 UTC06:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchMAF
23:39 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
23:41 UTC02:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryMAF
00:16 UTC03:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningMAF
03:22 UTC06:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryMAF

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 85 km from the path. October 8, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2018-10-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1288 joules per kilogram, CIN -73, lifted condensation level 941 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2018-10-08The 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 257 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1288 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-73 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2058 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
941 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
257 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
322 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.3
Supercell composite
11.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.7 hours after it, 85 km from the path. October 9, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2018-10-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 185 joules per kilogram, CIN -97, lifted condensation level 1544 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2018-10-09The 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 -62 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
185 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-97 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1123 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1544 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-62 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-71 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:15 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
00:07 UTCTORNADO4 N MccameyUpton, TXREPORT OF A TORNADO THAT TOUCHED DOWN VERY BRIEFLY...A COUPLE OF SECONDS AND THEN LIFTED. IN AN OPEN FIELD WHERE THERE ARE NO ROADS. IT WILL BE TENTATIVELY CLASSIFIED AS AN EF0 AS THERE WAS NO DAMAGE.
00:07 UTCTORNADO4 N MccameyUpton, TXREPORT OF A TORNADO THAT TOUCHED DOWN VERY BRIEFLY...A COUPLE OF SECONDS AND THEN LIFTED. IN AN OPEN FIELD WHERE THERE ARE NO ROADS. IT WILL BE TENTATIVELY CLASSIFIED AS AN EF0 AS THERE WAS NO DAMAGE. IT HAPPENED AT APPR

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 8, 2018

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 84:19 PM CDTEF0Brown, KS3.175
October 85:02 PM CDTUnratedTerry, TX0.530
October 85:54 PM CDTEF0Nodaway, MO2.250
October 86:02 PM CDTEF0Sullivan, MO0.825
October 86:22 PM CDTEF0Guthrie, IA5.9100
October 87:53 PM CDTEF1Clarke, IA4.9250$15,000

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.