Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2019
EF0 tornado, Keenan, Texas, April 7, 2019
This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Montgomery County on April 7, 2019, touching down at 12:58 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $6,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- April 7, 2019
- Touchdown
- 12:58 PM CDT (17:58 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:59 PM CDT (17:59 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.0 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $6,000
- Crop damage
- $7,000
- County
- Montgomery County
- Touchdown point
- 30.319, -95.644
- Lift-off point
- 30.320, -95.644
- Record number
- 1904071158-01
The damage survey
2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HGX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.
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
A storm system moved across the area during the day and produced large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
This EF-0 tornado downed or snapped several trees, including one on a trailer.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
4 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:54 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 12:11 UTC and running to 20:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:11 UTC | 20:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | HGX |
| 12:28 UTC | 13:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | HGX |
| 17:04 UTC | 17:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
| 17:20 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
| 17:35 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
| 17:54 UTC | 18:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 17:58 UTC | 18:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
| 18:35 UTC | 19:05 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:13 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), 12:00Z
6.0 hours before the tornado, 236 km from the path. April 7, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2596 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -7 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2954 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 449 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 39 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 124 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 2.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z
6.0 hours after it, 236 km from the path. April 8, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43443 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2166 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 234 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 299 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
The surface observations
Conroe/Montgomery County Airport (CXO), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:00 UTC | 140° 7 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 16:05 UTC | 130° 5 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 16:10 UTC | 130° 9 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 16:15 UTC | 140° 7 kt | 1014.2 | ||||
| 16:20 UTC | 110° 5 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 16:23 UTC | 76 | 72 | 110° 6 kt | 1013.9 | ||
| 16:25 UTC | 100° 5 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 16:30 UTC | 110° 5 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 16:35 UTC | 110° 5 kt | 1013.5 | ||||
| 16:40 UTC | 100° 5 kt | 1013.2 | ||||
| 16:45 UTC | 80° 4 kt | 1012.9 | -RA | |||
| 16:50 UTC | 100° 5 kt | 1012.9 | -RA | |||
| 16:53 UTC | 74 | 72 | 90° 6 kt | 1012.9 | -RA | |
| 16:55 UTC | 100° 4 kt | 1013.2 | -RA | |||
| 17:00 UTC | 80° 2 kt | 1012.5 | -RA | |||
| 17:05 UTC | 90° 5 kt | 1012.9 | ||||
| 17:10 UTC | 120° 5 kt | 1012.9 | ||||
| 17:15 UTC | 110° 4 kt | 1012.9 | -RA | |||
| 17:20 UTC | 90° 4 kt | 1012.9 | -RA | |||
| 17:25 UTC | 100° 4 kt | 1012.5 | -RA | |||
| 17:29 UTC | 73 | 73 | 80° 6 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS -RA | |
| 17:30 UTC | 80° 5 kt | 1012.2 | -RA | |||
| 17:35 UTC | 80° 5 kt | 1011.9 | -RA | |||
| 17:39 UTC | 73 | 73 | 100° 4 kt | 1012.2 | -RA | |
| 17:40 UTC | 110° 4 kt | 1012.2 | -RA | |||
| 17:45 UTC | 130° 4 kt | 1012.2 | -RA | |||
| 17:50 UTC | 100° 4 kt | 1011.9 | -RA | |||
| 17:53 UTC | 73 | 73 | 70° 3 kt | 1011.9 | VCTS RA BR | |
| 17:55 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1011.9 | RA BR | |||
| 18:00 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1011.5 | -RA BR | |||
| 18:04 UTC | 73 | 73 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.5 | -TSRA BR | |
| 18:05 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1011.5 | -RA BR | |||
| 18:10 UTC | 1013.2 | -RA BR | ||||
| 18:14 UTC | 65 | 64 | 220° 15 kt | 23 | 1013.2 | +TSRA BR |
| 18:15 UTC | 15 kt | 1013.2 | +RA BR | |||
| 18:20 UTC | 190° 15 kt | 1013.5 | +RA BR | |||
| 18:20 UTC | 62 | 62 | 190° 15 kt | 23 | 1013.5 | +TSRA BR |
| 18:25 UTC | 180° 9 kt | 1012.9 | +RA BR | |||
| 18:29 UTC | 62 | 62 | 200° 4 kt | 1012.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 18:30 UTC | 190° 5 kt | 1012.9 | +RA BR | |||
| 18:35 UTC | 240° 2 kt | 1011.9 | +RA BR | |||
| 18:36 UTC | 62 | 62 | 250° 3 kt | 1011.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 18:40 UTC | 290° 5 kt | 1011.5 | +RA BR | |||
| 18:45 UTC | 320° 5 kt | 1011.2 | RA BR | |||
| 18:50 UTC | 320° 4 kt | 1010.8 | RA BR | |||
| 18:53 UTC | 62 | 62 | 0° 0 kt | 1010.8 | TSRA BR | |
| 18:55 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1010.8 | RA BR | |||
| 19:00 UTC | 80° 4 kt | 1010.8 | RA BR | |||
| 19:05 UTC | 80° 5 kt | 1010.8 | RA BR | |||
| 19:10 UTC | 90° 5 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 19:15 UTC | 100° 7 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 19:20 UTC | 80° 7 kt | 1010.5 | RA BR | |||
| 19:25 UTC | 8 kt | 1010.5 | RA BR | |||
| 19:26 UTC | 62 | 62 | 80° 7 kt | 1010.2 | VCTS RA BR | |
| 19:30 UTC | 70° 5 kt | 1009.8 | -RA BR | |||
| 19:35 UTC | 30° 8 kt | 1008.8 | -RA | |||
| 19:40 UTC | 60° 5 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 19:45 UTC | 70° 4 kt | 1009.8 | -RA | |||
| 19:50 UTC | 320° 4 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 19:53 UTC | 64 | 64 | 340° 3 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 19:55 UTC | 340° 2 kt | 1009.1 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Houston radar (KHGX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:56 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Keenan | Montgomery, TX | TREES DOWN ACROSS FM 2854 NEAR KEENAN CUTOFF ROAD SOUTHWEST OF LAKE CONROE. |
| 17:58 UTC | TORNADO | Keenan | Montgomery, TX | EF-0 TORNADO DOWNED A TREE ON A TRAILER AND DOWNED OR SNAPPED SEVERAL OTHER TREES. |
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
The other tornadoes of April 7, 2019
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 7 | 7:24 AM CDT | EF0 | Bee, TX | 0.6 | 30 | $1.3 million | ||
| April 7 | 12:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Harris, TX | 0.7 | 50 | $150,000 | ||
| April 7 | 6:01 PM CDT | EF1 | Wilkinson, MS | 2.2 | 175 | |||
| April 7 | 7:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Ascension Parish, LA | 2.0 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| April 7 | 8:04 PM CDT | EF1 | Saint Helena Parish, LA | 1.5 | 75 | |||
| April 7 | 8:19 PM CDT | EF0 | Jefferson Parish, LA | 2.6 | 50 |
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.