EF1 tornado, Nadeau Hgts to Texas City, Texas, January 6, 2021

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

January 6, 2021

Touchdown

6:14 PM CST (00:14 UTC)

Lifted

6:17 PM CST (00:17 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Galveston County

Touchdown point

29.397, -94.926

Lift-off point

29.393, -94.893

Record number

2101061814-01

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HGX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Walls down on 3 of 4 sides. Not well build structure.
• Slight uplift of roofing material west facing.
• Very large limbs sheared off, tree trunks snapped.
• Tree trunk snapped but not a healthy tree. More tree damage in area.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A squall line which formed along an advancing surface cold front produced strong wind gusts, severe hail, and an EF-1 Tornado in Texas City, TX which resulted in damage to homes and businesses.

NWS conducted a storm survey of storm damage in the area around the intersection of 21st street and 13th avenue north, then along a path toward the ESE ending at Anchor Park. Damage suggested a tornado on the high end of EF1 rating for the most severe damage occurred at a convenience store and the adjacent Tradewinds Apartment complex. A clear relatively narrow path was seen in the severe damage. Although most debris was pushed toward the east dirt and insulation was found splattered on all sides of many structures including the east downwind side. Damage continued intermittently along an ESE path to Rainbow Park where numerous hardwood tree trunks and large limbs were snapped off and an iron fence was pushed over. In addition a business lost most of their roof around 6th street and 11th avenue. Most of the other damage along the path was EF0 tree damage through a residential area but little or no damage to structures.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:02 UTC and running to 00:49 UTC.

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 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 19:53 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 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.

Galveston/Scholes (GLS), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Houston radar (KHGX), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:16 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.