Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2023
EF0 tornado, Cove to Wallisville Res, Texas, January 24, 2023
From Cove to Wallisville Res, this EF0 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Chambers County on January 24, 2023, touching down at 2:58 PM CST and reaching 30 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 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
- January 24, 2023
- Touchdown
- 2:58 PM CST (20:58 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:01 PM CST (21:01 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 2.4 miles (3.8 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Chambers County
- Touchdown point
- 29.830, -94.770
- Lift-off point
- 29.860, -94.750
- Record number
- 2301241458-01
The damage survey
4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HGX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.
- Suggested by radar. Confirmed by drone footage.
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
Several tornadoes occurred across the area in the afternoon.
This short-lived EF0 tornado produced damage to some trees the the Cove area.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
34 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:24 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:49 UTC and running to 22:28 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | HGX |
| 16:49 UTC | 22:28 UTC | Tornado Watch | HGX |
| 20:19 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | HGX |
| 20:24 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 20:55 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | HGX |
| 21:01 UTC | 21:16 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 21:15 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
| 21:36 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HGX |
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 19:51 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
9.0 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. January 24, 2023.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -15296 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 744 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 395 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 502 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 1.7 K/km
The radar
The Houston radar (KHGX), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:01 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:19 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sse South Houston | Harris, TX | TORNADO MOVED ACROSS SOUTHERN HARRIS COUNTY. RADAR CONFIRMED NEAR I-45 AND BELTWAY 8 (SOUTH). TORNADO CONTINUED EAST NORTHEAST THROUGH PASADENA, DEER PARK AND THE HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL. EXTENSIVE DAMAGE REPORTED. UNKNOWN |
| 20:42 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 41 | 1 Ene Morgan'S Point | Gmz335, TX | WIND GUST WAS MEASURED AT MORGANS POINT NOS/COOPS SITE. |
| 20:59 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ene Cove | Chambers, TX | RADAR CONFIRMED TORNADO. |
| 21:34 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 43 | 19 E San Leon | Galveston, TX | WIND GUST WAS MEASURED AT THE CRAB LAKE WEATHERFLOW SITE. |
| 21:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Nome | Jefferson, TX | SIGNIFICANT STRUCTURAL DAMAGE IN THE NOME AREA POSSIBLY FROM A TORNADO. |
| 22:05 UTC | TORNADO | 7 Ese Hamshire | Jefferson, TX | SURVEY |
| 22:07 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Se Fannett | Jefferson, TX | RADAR INDICATES A TDS. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of January 24, 2023
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 24 | 1:38 PM CST | EF0 | Fort Bend, TX | 14.6 | 100 | |||
| January 24 | 2:07 PM CST | EF0 | Brazoria, TX | 2.5 | 50 | |||
| January 24 | 2:15 PM CST | EF3 | Harris, TX | 23.3 | 1,000 | $6.6 million | ||
| January 24 | 3:27 PM CST | EF2 | Liberty, TX | 2.0 | 50 | $150,000 | ||
| January 24 | 4:05 PM CST | EF1 | Jefferson, TX | 5.5 | 75 | $15,000 | ||
| January 24 | 4:23 PM CST | EF1 | Orange, TX | 2.3 | 75 | $25,000 | ||
| January 24 | 4:28 PM CST | EF2 | Orange, TX to LA | 25.2 | 500 | 2 | $1.3 million | |
| January 24 | 4:44 PM CST | EF1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 1.4 | 90 | $15,000 | ||
| January 24 | 5:05 PM CST | EF2 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 12.4 | 300 | 3 | $505,000 | |
| January 24 | 5:12 PM CST | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 6.5 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| January 24 | 7:37 PM CST | EF1 | Pointe Coupee Parish, LA | 1.1 | 75 | 3 | $113,000 | |
| January 24 | 10:01 PM CST | EF1 | Terrebonne Parish, LA | 3.0 | 75 | $60,000 | ||
| January 24 | 10:55 PM CST | Unrated | Jefferson Parish, LA | 2.9 | 100 |
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.