Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2021

Unrated tornado, Aleman to Lanham, Texas, March 24, 2021

From Aleman to Lanham, this Unrated tornado ran 0.9 miles across Hamilton County on March 24, 2021, touching down at 7:03 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.

  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
March 24, 2021
Touchdown
7:03 PM CDT (00:03 UTC)
Lifted
7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.9 miles (1.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hamilton County
Touchdown point
31.690, -98.010
Lift-off point
31.699, -97.998
Record number
2103241803-01

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 by multiple chasers. No damage was reported.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:40 UTC and running to 02:53 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:40 UTC02:53 UTCTornado WatchFWD
22:43 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
22:45 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningFWD
23:26 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
00:08 UTC00:37 UTCTornado WarningFWD
02:53 UTC05:55 UTCTornado WatchFWD
04:09 UTC04:48 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD

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

11.9 hours after it, 143 km from the path. March 25, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2021-03-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -79195, lifted condensation level 579 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2021-03-25The 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 -200 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 79 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:03 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:27 UTCHAIL 1.751 Nw GoldthwaiteMills, TXGOLF BALL SIZE HAIL REPORTED AT GOLDTHWAITE HIGH SCHOOL.
23:38 UTCHAIL 1HamiltonHamilton, TXTIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR.
00:03 UTCTORNADO7 E HamiltonHamilton, TXA 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 UTCTORNADO5 Ene Cranfills GapBosque, TXA 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 UTCHAIL 1.252 S MeridianBosque, TXTIME 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 247:32 PM CDTUnratedBosque, TX0.550

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.