Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2019

EF0 tornado, Krum, Texas, May 29, 2019

This EF0 tornado ran 3.7 miles across Denton County on May 29, 2019, touching down at 1:22 PM CDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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.

  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
May 29, 2019
Touchdown
1:22 PM CDT (18:22 UTC)
Lifted
1:31 PM CDT (18:31 UTC)
On the ground
9 minutes
Path length
3.7 miles (6.0 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
County
Denton County
Touchdown point
33.257, -97.241
Lift-off point
33.286, -97.189
Record number
1905291222-01

The damage survey

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 76 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 cold front ignited scattered to numerous thunderstorms across the region on Wednesday, May 29. Many of these were severe and a few produced damaging tornadoes.

An EF-0 tornado formed just south of the center of Krum. The tornado moved northeast through the eastern portion of the community, producing tree damage and isolated power line damage. The tornado dissipated just northeast of the Krum High School. Maximum winds with the tornado were estimated at 75 mph.

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 tornado watch, issued at 17:47 UTC and running to 22:57 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:00 UTC02:46 UTCFlash Flood WatchFWD
13:39 UTC17:47 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchFWD
17:47 UTC22:57 UTCTornado WatchFWD
17:55 UTC19:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
18:28 UTC19:15 UTCTornado WarningFWD
18:38 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningFWD
18:52 UTC21:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryFWD
18:57 UTC19:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:35 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

6.4 hours before the tornado, 50 km from the path. May 29, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2019-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1318 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 786 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2019-05-29The 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 150 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1318 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2504 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
786 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

5.6 hours after it, 50 km from the path. May 30, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2019-05-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -393, lifted condensation level 983 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2019-05-30The 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 -40 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-393 J/kg
Surface CAPE
743 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
983 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-40 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
103 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Denton (DTO), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:25 UTC130° 7 kt1007.1
16:30 UTC140° 7 kt1007.5
16:31 UTC7871140° 6 kt1007.8VCTS
16:35 UTC130° 5 kt1007.8
16:40 UTC130° 7 kt1007.8-RA
16:45 UTC140° 7 kt1008.1-RA
16:49 UTC78.871.6130° 6 kt1007.8
16:50 UTC130° 5 kt1007.5
16:53 UTC7872140° 7 kt1007.5
16:55 UTC130° 5 kt1007.8
17:00 UTC120° 4 kt1007.5
17:05 UTC100° 4 kt1007.5-RA
17:10 UTC80° 4 kt1007.1-RA
17:15 UTC110° 5 kt1007.1-RA
17:20 UTC130° 4 kt1006.8-RA
17:25 UTC130° 5 kt1007.1-RA
17:30 UTC120° 5 kt1006.4-RA
17:35 UTC120° 5 kt1006.4-RA
17:40 UTC110° 7 kt1006.4
17:45 UTC110° 8 kt1005.8
17:50 UTC110° 10 kt1005.8-RA
17:53 UTC7771100° 9 kt1005.4VCTS -RA
17:55 UTC100° 9 kt1005.4-RA
18:00 UTC90° 8 kt1005.4-RA
18:05 UTC80° 7 kt1005.8-RA
18:10 UTC70° 7 kt1006.4
18:12 UTC777270° 5 kt1006.4-TSRA
18:15 UTC60° 5 kt1006.8-RA
18:20 UTC100° 5 kt1006.8RA
18:25 UTC7673 3 kt1007.5+TSRA BR
18:30 UTC300° 8 kt1007.1+RA BR
18:35 UTC 13 kt181007.1+RA BR
18:36 UTC7168310° 13 kt181007.1+TSRA BR
18:40 UTC260° 10 kt1007.8+RA FG
18:45 UTC230° 5 kt1007.8RA BR
18:45 UTC7168230° 6 kt1007.8TSRA BR
18:50 UTC280° 7 kt1007.5+RA BR
18:53 UTC7068300° 4 kt1007.5+TSRA BR
18:55 UTC280° 7 kt1007.5+RA BR
19:00 UTC260° 2 kt1007.5+RA BR
19:02 UTC70680° 0 kt1007.5+TSRA FG
19:05 UTC360° 2 kt1007.1+RA FG
19:10 UTC350° 7 kt1007.1RA BR
19:14 UTC706820° 7 kt1007.1VCTS -RA BR
19:15 UTC10° 8 kt1007.1-RA BR
19:20 UTC10° 8 kt1007.1-RA
19:21 UTC696710° 9 kt1007.1VCTS -RA
19:25 UTC10° 11 kt1006.8-RA
19:30 UTC10° 11 kt1006.4
19:35 UTC20° 8 kt1006.4
19:40 UTC10° 7 kt1006.4
19:45 UTC50° 5 kt1006.1
19:50 UTC30° 8 kt1005.8
19:55 UTC360° 8 kt-RA
19:57 UTC340° 9 kt1006.4-TSRA
20:00 UTC 14 kt1007.5-RA
20:05 UTC320° 11 kt1007.8+RA BR
20:09 UTC686620° 7 kt201006.8+TSRA BR
20:10 UTC20° 9 kt1006.8+RA BR
20:15 UTC340° 10 kt1006.8+RA BR
20:19 UTC6867330° 11 kt1007.5-TSRA BR
20:20 UTC330° 11 kt1007.5-RA BR

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:21 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
18:17 UTCHAIL 0.75Eagle MountainTarrant, TXPENNY SIZE HAIL AT EAGLE MOUNTAIN LAKE
18:19 UTCTORNADO2 Se Eagle MountainTarrant, TXA BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO OCCURRED IN SAGINAW TARRANT CO. MAXIMUM WINDS OF 80 MPH, WITH MOST OF THE DAMAGE BEING ACROSS THE NORTH-SIDE OF SAGINAW. THE SURVEY TEAM FOUND DAMAGE TO SEVERAL TREES, BUSINESS SIGNS AND POWER LINES
18:22 UTCTORNADO1 Sw KrumDenton, TXAN EF-0 TORNADO FORMED JUST SOUTH OF THE CENTER OF KRUM. THE TORNADO MOVED NORTHEAST THROUGH THE EASTERN PORTION OF THE COMMUNITY, PRODUCING TREE DAMAGE AND ISOLATED POWER LINE DAMAGE. THE TORNADO DISSIPATED JUST NORTHEA
18:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 612 S KrumDenton, TX$$
18:31 UTCTORNADO4 Sse HasletTarrant, TXA BRIEF EF-1 TORNADO OCCURRED IN NORTH FORT WORTH IN THE HERITAGE TRACE SUBDIVISION. MAXIMUM WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 90 MPH. PATH LENGTH WAS ALMOST A HALF MILE. THERE WAS SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE, ROOF COVERING LOSS AND B
18:44 UTCTSTM WND DMGSaginawTarrant, TXPOWER POLES AND TRAILER DAMAGED
19:00 UTCHAIL 0.753 N GrapevineTarrant, TX$$
21:01 UTCHAIL 0.753 E TiogaGrayson, TXPENNY SIZE HAIL ON FM121 3 MILES EAST OF TIOGA.

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 May 29, 2019

40 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 298:44 AM CDTEF1Scott, MO1.075$50,000
May 292:07 PM EDTEF0Tioga, PA1.150$25,000
May 291:19 PM CDTEF0Tarrant, TX3.9200$5,000
May 291:31 PM CDTEF1Tarrant, TX0.5300$100,000
May 293:14 PM EDTEF0Lehigh, PA2.350
May 293:20 PM EDTEF0Sullivan, PA0.450
May 292:58 PM CDTEF0Rockwall, TX3.125$1,000
May 293:07 PM CDTEF0Van Zandt, TX3.0100$5,000
May 294:14 PM EDTEF1Perry, PA4.9300$40,000
May 293:17 PM CDTUnratedVan Zandt, TX0.250
May 294:24 PM EDTEF1Dauphin, PA2.5350$20,000
May 294:24 PM EDTEF1Fulton, PA0.750$35,000
May 293:36 PM CDTEF0Wood, TX3.4100$1,000
May 294:00 PM CDTUnratedSac, IA1.230
May 294:11 PM CDTUnratedSac, IA0.720
May 294:21 PM CDTEF0McCurtain, OK1.175
May 294:24 PM CDTEF2Kaufman, TX4.02151$1.0 million
May 294:28 PM CDTEF0Christian, IL0.220
May 294:30 PM CDTEF0Christian, IL0.220
May 294:35 PM CDTEF0Christian, IL0.320
May 294:49 PM CDTUnratedPocahontas, IA0.240
May 294:50 PM CDTEF0Macon, IL0.520
May 294:50 PM CDTEF2Wood, TX9.1850$300,000
May 294:51 PM CDTEF2Van Zandt, TX7.2700$500,000
May 295:08 PM CDTEF1Van Zandt, TX2.3140$250,000
May 295:16 PM CDTEF0Randolph, AR0.675$40,000
May 295:18 PM CDTEF1Van Zandt, TX3.8250$1,000
May 295:31 PM CDTEF0Fannin, TX10.8300$25,000
May 296:21 PM CDTUnratedHumboldt, IA0.530
May 296:23 PM CDTEF0Iowa, IA0.120
May 297:01 PM CDTEF1Poweshiek, IA3.5501$10,000
May 297:28 PM CDTUnratedPoweshiek, IA0.930
May 297:37 PM CDTEF0Hardin, IA1.130
May 297:39 PM CDTUnratedPoweshiek, IA0.930
May 297:46 PM CDTEF0Iowa, IA3.320
May 298:13 PM CDTEF0Johnson, IA0.320
May 298:15 PM CDTEF0Hardin, IA1.230
May 298:29 PM CDTEF0Hardin, IA0.640$30,000
May 298:31 PM CDTEF0Hardin, IA1.350$10,000
May 298:54 PM CDTUnratedHardin, IA0.720

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.