Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2020

Unrated tornado, Crosbyton Muni Arpt, Texas, July 22, 2020

This Unrated tornado ran 0.0 miles across Crosby County on July 22, 2020, touching down at 2:42 PM CDT 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
July 22, 2020
Touchdown
2:42 PM CDT (19:42 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Crosby County
Touchdown point
33.550, -101.200
Lift-off point
33.550, -101.200
Record number
2007221342-01

What the Weather Service recorded

On the afternoon of the 22nd, scattered thunderstorms developed along several remnant outflow boundaries from earlier convection. Broadcast media relayed a picture of a short lived landspout tornado about seven miles south of Crosbyton (Crosby County).

Local broadcast media relayed a picture of a landspout tornado approximately seven miles south of Crosbyton.

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 15:47 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

7.7 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. July 22, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2020-07-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 345 joules per kilogram, CIN -99, lifted condensation level 1244 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2020-07-22The 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 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.1939Sfc1 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
345 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-99 J/kg
Surface CAPE
187 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1244 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

4.3 hours after it, 192 km from the path. July 23, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2020-07-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 572 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 2036 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2020-07-23The 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 -37 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
572 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1332 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2036 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-37 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lubbock International Airport (LBB), 59 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:45 UTC250° 8 kt1019.3
17:47 UTC80.666.2220° 8 kt1019.3TS
17:50 UTC220° 10 kt1019.3
17:53 UTC8267220° 11 kt1019.3TS
17:55 UTC250° 11 kt1019.3
18:00 UTC240° 11 kt1019.3
18:05 UTC 11 kt1019.3
18:10 UTC250° 9 kt1019
18:12 UTC8065250° 9 kt1019
18:15 UTC240° 9 kt1019
18:20 UTC230° 10 kt1019
18:25 UTC220° 9 kt1018.6
18:30 UTC230° 9 kt1018.6
18:35 UTC220° 8 kt1018.6
18:40 UTC210° 7 kt1018.6
18:45 UTC210° 5 kt1018.3
18:50 UTC230° 5 kt1017.9
18:53 UTC8463220° 6 kt1017.9
18:55 UTC210° 5 kt1017.9
19:00 UTC210° 5 kt1017.9
19:05 UTC200° 5 kt1017.6
19:10 UTC210° 8 kt1017.6
19:15 UTC230° 5 kt1017.6
19:20 UTC180° 4 kt1017.6
19:25 UTC150° 7 kt1017.6
19:30 UTC150° 8 kt1017.6
19:35 UTC170° 8 kt1017.6
19:40 UTC 9 kt1017.9
19:45 UTC150° 8 kt1017.9
19:50 UTC170° 8 kt1017.9
19:53 UTC8766190° 7 kt1017.9
19:55 UTC180° 8 kt1017.9
20:00 UTC220° 10 kt1017.9
20:05 UTC220° 5 kt1017.9
20:10 UTC190° 7 kt1017.6
20:15 UTC210° 2 kt1017.3
20:20 UTC200° 7 kt1017.3
20:25 UTC140° 5 kt1017.3
20:30 UTC250° 7 kt1017.3
20:35 UTC220° 4 kt1017.3
20:40 UTC190° 4 kt1016.9
20:45 UTC180° 4 kt1016.9
20:50 UTC200° 2 kt1016.9
20:53 UTC8963 3 kt1016.9
20:55 UTC270° 7 kt1016.9
21:00 UTC360° 5 kt1016.9
21:05 UTC80° 8 kt1017.3
21:10 UTC80° 2 kt1017.6
21:15 UTC130° 10 kt1017.3
21:20 UTC 21 kt1017.3
21:25 UTC 351017.6
21:30 UTC 22 kt291017.6
21:35 UTC 19 kt1017.9
21:40 UTC140° 13 kt1017.9

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

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:42 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.

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

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.