Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2020
Unrated tornado, Bonnie View, Texas, July 25, 2020
This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Refugio County on July 25, 2020, touching down at 12:48 PM CDT and reaching 25 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
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.
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 25, 2020
- Touchdown
- 12:48 PM CDT (17:48 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Refugio County
- Touchdown point
- 28.160, -97.350
- Lift-off point
- 28.160, -97.350
- Record number
- 2007251148-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Hurricane Hanna was the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic Basin hurricane season and made landfall on the lower Texas coast north of Port Mansfield on the afternoon of the 25th. Hanna was the first hurricane to make landfall in Texas since Hurricane Harvey. ||Hanna began as a tropical wave, first noted for possible development when it was near Hispaniola on the 19th. The tropical wave moved northwest across Cuba into the central Gulf of Mexico where it became a tropical depression on the morning of the 22nd. Tropical Storm Hanna formed late in the evening on the 23rd as it moved west-northwest over the central Gulf of Mexico. Hanna continued to strengthen and became a hurricane on the morning of the 25th around 100 miles east of the Middle Texas coast. Hurricane Hanna turned to the southwest and made landfall over Kenedy County, between Baffin Bay and Port Mansfield, late in the afternoon on the 25th with a peak intensity of 90 mph and a central pressure of 973 millibars.||Tropical storm force winds occurred along the Middle Texas coast into the eastern portions of the Brush Country from the afternoon of the 25th until the early morning hours of the 26th. Hurricane force gusts occurred over the coastal portion of Kleberg County during the afternoon of the 25th. ||Storm surge from Hanna affected the entire Middle Texas coast from the 25th until the 26th. Storm surge ranged from 1 to 3 feet above ground level for the coastal areas of Aransas, Calhoun, and Refugio Counties. Storm surge ranged from 2.5 to 4.5 feet above ground level for coastal areas of San Patricio, Nueces, and Kleberg Counties. ||The highest surge was at Bob Hall Pier with a reading of 5.48 feet mean higher high water. Storm surge damaged numerous piers and docks in Nueces and Corpus Christi Bays south to Baffin Bay. Storm surge damaged navigation markers in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. Some parts of the Corpus Christi marina were damaged. Bob Hall Pier sustained significant damage with the t-head parts of the pier being destroyed. Damage from Hurricane Hanna was estimated to be around 54 million dollars.||Minor wind damage occurred across the Coastal Bend as tropical storm force winds caused power outages and minor tree damage. There were three tornadoes over the Coastal Bend associated with the outer bands of Hurricane Hanna. The three tornadoes were weak (EF0). The tornadoes affected the communities of Bonnie View, Pernitas Point, and Lagarto.
Tornado occurred over an open field. No damage was documented.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
11 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:37 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 UTC | 22:20 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | CRP |
| 17:37 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | CRP |
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 16:55 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.
Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z
5.8 hours before the tornado, 48 km from the path. July 25, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 757 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -12 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3975 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 732 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 143 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 77 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z
6.2 hours after it, 48 km from the path. July 26, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 573 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1141 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 576 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 98 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 94 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The radar
The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:48 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:12 UTC | STORM SURGE | 2 Wsw Cc Nas | Nueces, TX | REPORTS OF FLOODING AT JFK CAUSEWAY AND OSO BRIDGE TURNAROUNDS. |
| 17:50 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Ssw Woodsboro | Refugio, TX | TORNADO REPORTED BETWEEN SINTON AND REFUGIO. LOCATION ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 17:52 UTC | STORM SURGE | 4 Wnw Corpus Christi | Nueces, TX | SNAPCHAT POST OF FLOODING DUE TO STORM SURGE NEAR SWANTER PARK ON OCEAN DR. |
| 18:08 UTC | STORM SURGE | 7 Ssw Portland | Nueces, TX | SNAPCHAT POST OF FLOODING DUE TO STORM SURGE IN CORPUS CHRISTI MARINA. |
| 19:00 UTC | STORM SURGE | 5 Sw Portland | Nueces, TX | VIDEO OF FLOODING FROM STORM SURGE ON NORTH BEACH. MOST ROADS ARE COMPLETELY COVERED. |
| 19:00 UTC | STORM SURGE | 7 Sw Portland | Nueces, TX | PHOTOS OF HIGH WATER LEVELS AND DAMAGE TO THE MARINA NEAR THE SEAWALL. TIME IS ESTIMATED BASED OFF OTHER DAMAGE REPORTS. |
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 July 25, 2020
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.