Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2021

EF0 tornado, Crossroads to Lorraine, Texas, November 11, 2021

From Crossroads to Lorraine, this EF0 tornado ran 2.6 miles across Harrison County on November 11, 2021, touching down at 12:51 AM CST 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 mphthis tornado

    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. 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
November 11, 2021
Touchdown
12:51 AM CST (06:51 UTC)
Lifted
12:53 AM CST (06:53 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
2.6 miles (4.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Harrison County
Touchdown point
32.402, -94.106
Lift-off point
32.399, -94.061
Record number
2111110051-01

The damage survey

20 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A longwave trough dug into the Southern Plains from the Central and Southern Rockies during the evening through the early morning hours of November 10th-11th, which reinforced a cold front southeast into these areas. A strong low level jet ahead of the front and attendant trough allowed for moisture to deepen across much of Texas and Oklahoma, with increasing large scale forcing contributing to the development of numerous showers and thunderstorms over these areas during the evening of the 10th, which organized into a squall line as it pushed east of the I-35 corridor into the Four State Region. These storms weakened as they entered the area, but re-intensified over portions of extreme Eastern Texas and Northwest Louisiana during the early morning hours of the 11th, producing several reports of wind damage which downed trees and power lines. This squall line also produced two brief tornadoes over Southern Harrison County Texas and another two brief tornadoes over Northwest Louisiana, before weakening as they moved east into North-Central Louisiana.

A weak EF-0 tornado with estimated maximum winds of 70 mph touched down briefly just southwest of Highway 31 along Mercer Road, and tracked east to Woodley Road in south central Harrison County. Only minor tree damage was observed. The damage was coincident with the beginning of a radar tornadic debris signature. This signature persisted for several miles downstream of this damage, but the survey team determined that lofted leaf debris likely caused the signal to persist much longer than there was observed damage on the ground.

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds of 95 mph touched down near Farm Road 9 in far southeastern Harrison County and tracked for roughly 2.5 miles while producing only tree damage along Candyman Road, then lifting approximately one mile before the Texas/Louisiana state line along Boggy Road. The highest degree of tree damage was at the start of the track where a cluster of hardwood trees had either large branches or trunks snapped. This damage was coincident with another radar tornadic debris signature and this signature persisted for several miles downstream of this damage, likely due to lofted leaf debris.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:50 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:02 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:50 UTC07:02 UTCTornado WarningSHV

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 05:27 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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

6.9 hours before the tornado, 32 km from the path. November 11, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 158 joules per kilogram, CIN -89, lifted condensation level 968 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-11-11The 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 198 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
158 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89 J/kg
Surface CAPE
232 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
968 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
302 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

5.1 hours after it, 32 km from the path. November 11, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2021-11-11Temperature 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 -69246, lifted condensation level 648 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2021-11-11The 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 14 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-69246 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
648 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 23 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:53 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
06:40 UTCTORNADO9 S ScottsvilleHarrison, TXA BRIEF EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN RURAL SOUTH CENTRAL HARRISON COUNTY DOING ONLY MINOR TREE DAMAGE JUST SOUTHWEST OF HIGHWAY 31. THERE WAS AN ASSOCIATED TORNADIC DEBRIS SIGNATURE ON RADAR. THE TORNADO HAD MAX WINDS OF
06:51 UTCTORNADO6 Ssw WaskomHarrison, TXA LOW END EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN RURAL SOUTHEASTERN HARRISON COUNTY DOING ONLY TREE DAMAGE FROM FARM ROAD 9 EAST TO JUST BEFORE THE STATE LINE. THERE WAS AN ASSOCIATED TORNADIC DEBRIS SIGNATURE ON RADAR. THE TORNADO
06:51 UTCTORNADO6 Ssw WaskomHarrison, TXCORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 6 SSW WASKOM. A LOW END EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN RURAL SOUTHEASTERN HARRISON COUNTY DOING ONLY TREE DAMAGE FROM FARM ROAD 9 EAST TO JUST BEFORE THE STATE LINE. THERE WAS AN ASSOCI

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 November 11, 2021

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 1112:40 AM CSTEF0Harrison, TX0.650$1,000
November 111:02 AM CSTEF1Caddo Parish, LA0.2100$90,000
November 112:06 AM CSTEF0Bienville Parish, LA1.240$5,000
November 113:03 PM CSTEF0Elmore, AL0.4270

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.