Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2020
EF0 tornado, Mexia Muni Arpt, Texas, April 12, 2020
This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Limestone County on April 12, 2020, touching down at 6:05 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 12, 2020
- Touchdown
- 6:05 AM CDT (11:05 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:06 AM CDT (11:06 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- County
- Limestone County
- Touchdown point
- 31.655, -96.430
- Lift-off point
- 31.656, -96.426
- Record number
- 2004120505-01
What the Weather Service recorded
The combination of a dryline, cold front and an upper level low pressure system produced multiple rounds of thunderstorms across North and Central Texas on Easter weekend. Most of the storms occurred Saturday night, when all forms of severe weather (including one small tornado) occurred.
A brief EF-0 tornado touched down along LCR 502 in Point Enterprise, TX. This spin-up occurred within a larger area of straight line wind damage, but it was seen by area storm spotters, and its presence was evident in pictures of grass that had been laid down in a swirling pattern within two fields. The location is based off reports and pictures but was not able to be fully confirmed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
20 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:45 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:17 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:52 UTC and running to 13:29 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:51 UTC | 10:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
| 10:43 UTC | 11:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
| 10:45 UTC | 11:17 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
| 10:52 UTC | 13:29 UTC | Tornado Watch | FWD |
| 11:40 UTC | 14:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | FWD |
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 06:02 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), 00:00Z
11.1 hours before the tornado, 154 km from the path. April 12, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 509 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -124 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 907 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 678 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 323 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 406 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 10.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z
0.9 hours after it, 154 km from the path. April 12, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1033 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -8 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1697 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 776 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 155 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 201 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.0
- Supercell composite
- 6.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.9 K/km
The radar
The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 131 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:06 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Reisel | Mclennan, TX | CENTRAL TX MEDIA REPORTS ROOFS OFF OF HOUSES IN RIESEL. |
| 10:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mart | Mclennan, TX | CENTRAL TX MEDIA REPORTS ROOF BLOWN OFF A HOUSE IN MART/LAVENDER AREA IN EXTREME EASTERN MCLENNAN CO |
| 10:52 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Nne Groesbeck | Limestone, TX | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ALONG HWY 14 NORTH OF GROESBECK AND NEAR FORT PARKER STATE PARK. |
| 10:58 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Nne Groesbeck | Limestone, TX | THUNDERSTORM WIND DAMAGE WAS REPORTED EAST OF FORT PARKER SP ALONG LCRS 456 AND 406. AN UNOCCUPIED TRAILER WAS ROLLED OVER AND DESTROYED, METAL FENCES AND AWNINGS WERE DAMAGED, LARGE TREE LIMBS WERE KNOCKED DOWN, AND SOM |
| 11:03 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ese Mexia | Limestone, TX | WIDESPREAD THUNDERSTORM WIND DAMAGE OCCURRED IN THE POINT ENTERPRISE AREA; IN PARTICULAR ALONG LCRS 502, 504 AND 498. METAL SHEETING WAS TORN OFF BARNS, CARPORTS AND SHEDS, LARGE TREE BRANCHES WERE KNOCKED DOWN OR SPLIT, |
| 11:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sse Mexia | Limestone, TX | LARGE TREE BLOWN OVER ONTO HOME AT FM 39 AND LCR 458. SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 11:05 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ese Mexia | Limestone, TX | A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG LCR 502 IN POINT ENTERPRISE. THIS SPIN-UP OCCURRED WITHIN A LARGER AREA OF STRAIGHT-LINE WIND DAMAGE, BUT IT WAS SEEN BY AREA STORM SPOTTERS, AND ITS PRESENCE WAS EVIDENT IN PICTUR |
| 11:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sse Mexia | Limestone, TX | LARGE, 2-3FT PLUS TREES DOWN IN MULTIPLE LOCALES BETWEEN SHILOH AND MEXIA ALONG HWY 39. |
| 11:22 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | Corsicana | Navarro, TX | CORSICANA ASOS MEASURED 50 KNOT STRAIGHTLINE WINDS. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 12, 2020
72 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 12 | 1:03 AM CDT | EF1 | Crockett, TX | 5.6 | 250 | |||
| April 12 | 4:05 AM CDT | EF1 | McCulloch, TX | 5.1 | 300 | |||
| April 12 | 4:40 AM CDT | EF1 | Gillespie, TX | 11.6 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| April 12 | 5:23 AM CDT | EF1 | Blanco, TX | 7.0 | 200 | 2 | $1.0 million | |
| April 12 | 9:06 AM CDT | EF1 | Shelby, TX | 0.7 | 30 | |||
| April 12 | 9:08 AM CDT | EF1 | Harrison, TX | 10.6 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| April 12 | 9:41 AM CDT | EF2 | De Soto Parish, LA | 9.1 | 400 | 1 | $1.0 million | |
| April 12 | 9:52 AM CDT | EF1 | Bossier Parish, LA | 0.4 | 125 | $150,000 | ||
| April 12 | 9:57 AM CDT | EF1 | De Soto Parish, LA | 6.7 | 300 | $25,000 | ||
| April 12 | 10:10 AM CDT | EF1 | Webster Parish, LA | 6.1 | 1,000 | $100,000 | ||
| April 12 | 10:30 AM CDT | EF1 | Bienville Parish, LA | 1.6 | 400 | |||
| April 12 | 10:39 AM CDT | EF1 | Bienville Parish, LA | 0.8 | 75 | $200,000 | ||
| April 12 | 11:36 AM CDT | EF3 | Ouachita Parish, LA | 8.0 | 300 | $250 million | ||
| April 12 | 11:39 AM CDT | EF3 | Ouachita Parish, LA | 2.6 | 400 | $750,000 | ||
| April 12 | 11:46 AM CDT | EF1 | Ouachita Parish, LA | 1.1 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| April 12 | 12:02 PM CDT | EF1 | Morehouse Parish, LA | 3.0 | 200 | $20,000 | ||
| April 12 | 12:10 PM CDT | EF2 | West Carroll Parish, LA | 9.5 | 700 | $36,000 | ||
| April 12 | 12:11 PM CDT | EF1 | Richland Parish, LA | 4.7 | 150 | $12,000 | ||
| April 12 | 12:11 PM CDT | EF1 | Richland Parish, LA | 7.5 | 700 | $26,000 | ||
| April 12 | 12:41 PM CDT | EF0 | East Carroll Parish, LA | 1.2 | 170 | $75,000 | ||
| April 12 | 1:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Sharkey, MS | 6.0 | 200 | $15,000 | ||
| April 12 | 1:17 PM CDT | EF1 | Humphreys, MS | 4.1 | 440 | $50,000 | ||
| April 12 | 1:22 PM CDT | EF2 | Yazoo, MS | 7.4 | 250 | $150,000 | ||
| April 12 | 1:46 PM CDT | EF0 | Holmes, MS | 2.3 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| April 12 | 2:06 PM CDT | EF1 | Attala, MS | 2.5 | 500 | $35,000 | ||
| April 12 | 2:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Choctaw, MS | 3.0 | 150 | $9,000 | ||
| April 12 | 3:30 PM CDT | EF2 | Noxubee, MS | 8.5 | 1,100 | $150,000 | ||
| April 12 | 3:38 PM CDT | EF4 | Hope–Bassfield tornado, MS | 22.1 | 1,936 | 4 | 3 | $2.8 million |
| April 12 | 3:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Noxubee, MS | 3.9 | 375 | $20,000 | ||
| April 12 | 4:01 PM CDT | EF0 | Pickens, AL | 1.5 | 200 | |||
| April 12 | 4:12 PM CDT | EF4 | Bassfield–Soso tornado, MS | 67.4 | 3,960 | 7 | 98 | $62 million |
| April 12 | 4:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Pickens, AL | 5.5 | 300 | |||
| April 12 | 4:34 PM CDT | EF0 | Fayette, AL | 1.8 | 350 | |||
| April 12 | 4:36 PM CDT | EF3 | Lawrence, MS | 83.2 | 2,041 | 2 | $18 million | |
| April 12 | 4:41 PM CDT | EF1 | Fayette, AL | 6.1 | 600 | |||
| April 12 | 5:04 PM CDT | EF1 | Walker, AL | 9.0 | 950 | |||
| April 12 | 5:14 PM CDT | EF2 | Jefferson, AL | 6.9 | 940 | |||
| April 12 | 5:22 PM CDT | EF2 | Clarke, MS | 14.3 | 300 | 2 | $250,000 | |
| April 12 | 5:44 PM CDT | EF0 | Blount, AL | 0.5 | 125 | |||
| April 12 | 5:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Blount, AL | 3.8 | 225 | |||
| April 12 | 5:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Lauderdale, MS | 2.9 | 300 | $50,000 | ||
| April 12 | 5:50 PM CDT | EF2 | Blount, AL | 5.6 | 500 | |||
| April 12 | 6:04 PM CDT | EF1 | Blount, AL | 0.8 | 115 | |||
| April 12 | 6:08 PM CDT | EF1 | Etowah, AL | 5.5 | 525 | |||
| April 12 | 6:10 PM CDT | EF2 | Blount, AL | 21.7 | 440 | 3 | ||
| April 12 | 6:10 PM CDT | EF1 | Jasper, MS | 8.9 | 985 | $30,000 | ||
| April 12 | 6:14 PM CDT | EF2 | Etowah, AL | 12.2 | 875 | |||
| April 12 | 8:15 PM EDT | EF2 | Chattooga, GA | 14.7 | 800 | $400,000 | ||
| April 12 | 8:12 PM CDT | EF1 | Walker, AL | 2.9 | 1,000 | 3 | ||
| April 12 | 8:33 PM CDT | EF1 | Tuscaloosa, AL | 9.9 | 230 | |||
| April 12 | 9:45 PM EDT | EF2 | Murray, GA | 8.9 | 860 | 8 | 24 | $500,000 |
| April 12 | 8:51 PM CDT | EF1 | Cullman, AL | 3.0 | 200 | |||
| April 12 | 9:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Cullman, AL | 5.4 | 300 | |||
| April 12 | 9:03 PM CDT | EF1 | Choctaw, AL | 0.4 | 100 | |||
| April 12 | 9:11 PM CDT | EF1 | Cullman, AL | 0.3 | 70 | |||
| April 12 | 9:12 PM CDT | EF2 | Cullman, AL | 2.5 | 350 | |||
| April 12 | 9:16 PM CDT | EF1 | Clarke, AL | 0.8 | 100 | |||
| April 12 | 9:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Marshall, AL | 5.0 | 200 | |||
| April 12 | 9:41 PM CDT | EF1 | Marengo, AL | 8.1 | 1,000 | |||
| April 12 | 9:50 PM CDT | EF1 | Dade, AL to GA | 7.5 | 350 | $700,000 |
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.