Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2021
Unrated tornado, Norse, Texas, March 24, 2021
This Unrated tornado ran 0.5 miles across Bosque County on March 24, 2021, touching down at 7:32 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
- March 24, 2021
- Touchdown
- 7:32 PM CDT (00:32 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:35 PM CDT (00:35 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.9 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Bosque County
- Touchdown point
- 31.810, -97.750
- Lift-off point
- 31.814, -97.742
- Record number
- 2103241832-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Storms developed along a dryline during the afternoon hours on March 24th. These storms advanced east into North and Central Texas, producing hail and a couple of EF-Unknown tornadoes. Large hail up to the size of 3 was reported in Tarrant and Denton counties. Hail-producing storms continued overnight as a cold front made its way through the area.
A tornado was reported and verified by storm chasers. The tornado was intermittent for about 3 minutes. No damage was reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
24 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:08 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:40 UTC and running to 02:53 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:40 UTC | 02:53 UTC | Tornado Watch | FWD |
| 23:26 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
| 00:08 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
| 00:47 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
| 00:55 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
| 02:53 UTC | 05:55 UTC | Tornado Watch | FWD |
| 04:52 UTC | 05:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
| 05:35 UTC | 08:45 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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), 12:00Z
11.5 hours after it, 121 km from the path. March 25, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -79195 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 579 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 79 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -200 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 348 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
The surface observations
Hamilton (MNZ), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:35 UTC | 68 | 60 | 110° 6 kt | 1004.7 | ||
| 22:55 UTC | 67.3 | 60.3 | 110° 9 kt | 1004.7 | -RA | |
| 23:15 UTC | 66.4 | 61.3 | 100° 6 kt | 1004.4 | RA | |
| 23:35 UTC | 65.7 | 62.4 | 340° 17 kt | 20 | 1004.1 | +TSRA |
| 23:55 UTC | 58.5 | 58.5 | 340° 9 kt | 12 | 1005.1 | -TSRA |
| 00:15 UTC | 60.8 | 60.8 | 60° 4 kt | 1004.7 | ||
| 00:35 UTC | 62.6 | 62.6 | 150° 5 kt | 1004.4 | VCTS | |
| 00:55 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1005.1 | ||
| 01:15 UTC | 64 | 64 | 0° 0 kt | 1005.1 | ||
| 01:35 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 100° 10 kt | 1005.1 | VCTS | |
| 01:55 UTC | 64.6 | 64.6 | 130° 10 kt | 1004.7 | BR | |
| 02:15 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 130° 9 kt | 1005.1 | BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:29 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:38 UTC | HAIL 1 | Hamilton | Hamilton, TX | TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
| 00:03 UTC | TORNADO | 7 E Hamilton | Hamilton, TX | A TORNADO WAS REPORTED BY MULTIPLE STORM CHASERS TO THE EAST OF HAMILTON. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED, BUT THE TORNADO WAS VERIFIED BY VIDEO AND PICTURES. THIS WILL BE RATED AN EF-UNKNOWN FOR NOW. |
| 00:32 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ene Cranfills Gap | Bosque, TX | A TORNADO WAS REPORTED AND VERIFIED BY STORM CHASER PICTURES. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED. THE TORNADO WAS INTERMITTENT FOR ABOUT 3 MINUTES. THIS WILL BE RATED AN EF-UNKNOWN. |
| 00:55 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 2 S Meridian | Bosque, TX | TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 24, 2021
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 24 | 7:03 PM CDT | Unrated | Hamilton, TX | 0.9 | 50 |
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.