Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2019

Unrated tornado, Small, Texas, September 24, 2019

This Unrated tornado ran 0.2 miles across Hudspeth County on September 24, 2019, touching down at 4:30 PM MDT and reaching 10 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
September 24, 2019
Touchdown
4:30 PM MDT (22:30 UTC)
Lifted
4:35 PM MDT (22:35 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hudspeth County
Touchdown point
31.355, -105.364
Lift-off point
31.357, -105.360
Record number
1909241630-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level trough was moving through the Western U.S. with a weak surface trough extending through the Rio Grande Valley. Surface winds east of this trough had turned east to southeast providing enough shear and moisture for two weak landspout tornadoes to develop north of Sierra Blanca.

Two weak landspout tornadoes were reported about 12 miles north of Sierra Blanca. Both lasted an unknown amount of time with no injuries or damage reported from them.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Santa Teresa, NM (KEPZ), 12:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 139 km from the path. September 24, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Santa Teresa, NM at 12:00Z on 2019-09-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 25 joules per kilogram, CIN -195, lifted condensation level 1180 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, Santa Teresa, NM at 12:00Z on 2019-09-24The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
25 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-195 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1180 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Santa Teresa, NM (KEPZ), 00:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 139 km from the path. September 25, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Santa Teresa, NM at 00:00Z on 2019-09-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 74 joules per kilogram, CIN -135, lifted condensation level 1858 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, Santa Teresa, NM at 00:00Z on 2019-09-25The 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 -41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
74 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-135 J/kg
Surface CAPE
287 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1858 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-41 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
8.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The El Paso radar (KEPZ), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:28 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
22:30 UTCTORNADO12 N Sierra BlancaHudspeth, TXTWO LANDSPOUT TORNADOES WERE OBSERVED NORTH OF SIERRA BLANCA. BOTH LANDSPOUTS LASTED AN UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME. NO INJURIES OR DAMAGE WERE ASSOCIATED WITH EITHER LANDSPOUT.

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 September 24, 2019

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 245:31 PM CDTUnratedIda, IA0.010
September 245:42 PM CDTUnratedIda, IA0.710
September 245:57 PM CDTUnratedHarrison, IA0.125
September 246:45 PM CDTEF3Dunn, WI7.07253$3.3 million
September 247:23 PM CDTEF0Barber, KS0.850
September 247:58 PM CDTEF0Wabasha, MN1.135$250,000
September 249:26 PM CDTEF1Clark, WI4.760$255,000

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.