Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2021
EF0 tornado, Ft Acres, Texas, October 27, 2021
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Jefferson County on October 27, 2021, touching down at 8:54 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $150,000 of property damage.
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 mphthis tornado
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.
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
- October 27, 2021
- Touchdown
- 8:54 AM CDT (13:54 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:55 AM CDT (13:55 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $150,000
- County
- Jefferson County
- Touchdown point
- 29.904, -94.020
- Lift-off point
- 29.908, -94.017
- Record number
- 2110270754-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A vigorous storm system moved through Southeast Texas spawning tornadoes and severe weather.
A brief tornado started just west of Nick Ave in Port Acres where there was damage to out buildings and caused some roof damage to homes. The tornado moved northeast crossing Silver Ave then curved north northeast crossing 63 street before dissipating near 64th Street. Numerous limbs were blown down. Max estimated winds were 80 MPH.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
12 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:42 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 12:59 UTC and running to 16:52 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:59 UTC | 16:52 UTC | Tornado Watch | LCH |
| 13:13 UTC | 13:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LCH |
| 13:42 UTC | 14:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LCH |
| 15:24 UTC | 18:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | LCH |
| 15:35 UTC | 16:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
| 15:54 UTC | 16:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
| 16:14 UTC | 16:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 12:41 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.
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z
1.9 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. October 27, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1422 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2015 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 604 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 160 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 255 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.1
- Supercell composite
- 7.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z
10.1 hours after it, 82 km from the path. October 28, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -78778 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1072 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 68 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -233 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -22 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.8 K/km
The radar
The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:51 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:45 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 5 Ene Anahuac | Chambers, TX | VIDEO SHOWING FUNNEL CLOUD. |
| 13:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Ssw Nederland | Jefferson, TX | DAMAGE TO 4 HOMES NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF NICK AVENUE AND 63RD STREET. POSSIBLE TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR DATA. |
| 14:21 UTC | TORNADO | 4 W Bridge City | Orange, TX | |
| 14:38 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Wnw Orange | Orange, TX | |
| 14:46 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ese Mauriceville | Orange, TX | MULTIPLE DAMAGE REPORTS. |
| 14:50 UTC | TORNADO | 5 E Mauriceville | Orange, TX | |
| 14:56 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ssw Deweyville | Newton, TX | |
| 16:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Vidor | Orange, TX | SPOTTER REPORTS LARGE TREES DOWN NEAR I-10 IN VIDOR |
| 16:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Vidor | Orange, TX | SPOTTER REPORTS LARGE TREES DOWN NEAR I-10 IN VIDOR. |
| 16:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Vidor | Orange, TX | STORM SPOTTER REPORTS DAMAGE TO WRIGHTS BBQ ALONG MAIN ST IN VIDOR |
| 16:30 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 46 | 4 Se Sabine Pass | Jefferson, TX |
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 October 27, 2021
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 27 | 8:50 AM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, TX | 0.0 | 20 | $500 | ||
| October 27 | 9:33 AM CDT | EF2 | Orange, TX | 2.1 | 50 | $2.0 million | ||
| October 27 | 9:45 AM CDT | EF2 | Orange, TX | 6.9 | 100 | 1 | $3.9 million | |
| October 27 | 10:35 AM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 1.9 | 100 | $5,000 | ||
| October 27 | 11:44 AM CDT | Unrated | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 0.6 | 1 | |||
| October 27 | 12:20 PM CDT | EF2 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 2.2 | 300 | 2 | $2.5 million | |
| October 27 | 12:28 PM CDT | EF1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 0.9 | 50 | 1 | $1.0 million | |
| October 27 | 2:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Pointe Coupee Parish, LA | 10.5 | 25 | $5,000 | ||
| October 27 | 4:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 0.6 | 25 | $2,000 | ||
| October 27 | 6:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 2.0 | 25 | |||
| October 27 | 6:42 PM CDT | EF0 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 1.4 | 25 | |||
| October 27 | 6:49 PM CDT | EF1 | Pearl River, MS | 2.4 | 125 | $50,000 | ||
| October 27 | 8:31 PM CDT | EF1 | Jackson, MS | 0.9 | 50 | 1 | $150,000 |
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.