Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2019

Unrated tornado, Peacock to Swenson, Texas, April 27, 2019

From Peacock to Swenson, this Unrated tornado ran 2.4 miles across Stonewall County on April 27, 2019, touching down at 6:49 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
April 27, 2019
Touchdown
6:49 PM CDT (23:49 UTC)
Lifted
7:03 PM CDT (00:03 UTC)
On the ground
14 minutes
Path length
2.4 miles (3.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stonewall County
Touchdown point
33.191, -100.366
Lift-off point
33.181, -100.327
Record number
1904271749-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated thunderstorms erupted this afternoon along a southward moving cold front. The southeast movement to these storms allowed some to parallel the front and acquire supercell structures that created swaths of large to very large hail. An EFU tornado accompanied one of these supercells in Stonewall County and was photographed by many storm chasers.

Multiple storm chasers documented a tornado drifting southeast near Peacock. This tornado did not cause any known damage as it 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:47 UTC and running to 01:06 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:47 UTC01:06 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLUB
22:02 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
23:33 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
23:39 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
23:57 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningLUB
00:20 UTC00:39 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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

11.8 hours before the tornado, 221 km from the path. April 27, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2019-04-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 37 joules per kilogram, CIN -613, lifted condensation level 1924 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 2019-04-27The 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 273 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-613 J/kg
Surface CAPE
31 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1924 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
273 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
384 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

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

0.2 hours after it, 221 km from the path. April 28, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2019-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1214 joules per kilogram, CIN -72, lifted condensation level 2676 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 2019-04-28The 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 49 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
1214 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-72 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1938 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2676 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
107 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:46 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
23:13 UTCFLOODSpurDickens, TXTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS MAIN ROAD THROUGH SPUR PASSABLE BUT SIDE ROADS HAVE 1-1.5FT OF SLOW RUNNING WATER. THOSE ARE NOT PASSABLE ATTM.
23:25 UTCHAIL 16 Se SpurDickens, TXHAIL FALLING AT TIME OF REPORT
23:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 631 Sse JaytonKent, TX
23:45 UTCHAIL 2.752 Se JaytonKent, TX
23:54 UTCHAIL 1.52 N PeacockStonewall, TXTRAINED SPOTTER FOUND THE HAIL ON THE GROUND AFTER STORM PASSED
23:57 UTCTORNADO3 W PeacockStonewall, TXESTIMATED LOCATION
00:03 UTCHAIL 2.755 W SwensonStonewall, TXHAIL BROKE OUT WINDSHIELD OF SHERIFF CAR
00:09 UTCHAIL 21 N PeacockStonewall, TX
00:11 UTCHAIL 1.25AspermontStonewall, TXHAIL WAS GETTING LARGER BUT OBSERVER NEEDED TO GO TAKE SHELTER FROM POSSIBLE TORNADO
00:15 UTCHAIL 1.5AspermontStonewall, TX
00:25 UTCHAIL 12 E AspermontStonewall, TXFALLING NOW, WIND DRIVEN HAIL

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

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.