EF1 tornado, Bayside, Texas, May 13, 2023

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 13, 2023

Touchdown

4:06 AM CDT (09:06 UTC)

Lifted

4:08 AM CDT (09:08 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

11

Property damage

$500,000

County

Cameron County

Touchdown point

26.080, -97.263

Lift-off point

26.082, -97.256

Record number

2305130306-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BRO, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Large trashcan lofted into tree; large branches broken off.
• Sheet metal uplift/removal from poorly built mobile home.
• Carport destroyed and telephone pole bent toward the north. Several large limbs broken on Australian pine trees behind each damaged element.
• Wind speeds may be closer to 105 mph based on peripheral damage. Building swept off slab but poorly anchored if at all. Two persons injured and taken to hospital.

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

A rapidly-developing mini-supercell formed ahead of an approaching squall line near the Lower Texas coast just before 4 AM Saturday, May 13. The supercell spawned a quick spin-up tornado that struck the town of Laguna Heights, Texas, over a two-minute period before the circulation moved over Laguna Madre Bay and rapidly dissipated. The tornado tracked to the east northeast after the circulation was impacted by the approaching squall line, creating a boomerang effect since the original motion of the radar couplet was to the north-northwest prior to touchdown. Winds may have reached 110 mph, the top of the EF1 scale, in a few locations ��� but the very poor quality of construction suggests 105 mph is a better estimate.

A rapidly-developing mini-supercell formed ahead of an approaching squall line near the Lower Texas coast just before 4 AM Saturday, May 13. The supercell spawned a quick spin-up tornado that struck the town of Laguna Heights, Texas, over a two-minute period before the circulation moved over Laguna Madre Bay and rapidly dissipated. The tornado tracked to the east-northeast after the circulation was impacted by the approaching squall line, creating a boomerang effect since the original motion of the radar couplet was to the north-northwest prior to touchdown. Winds may have reached 110 mph, the top of the EF1 scale, in a few locations ��� but the very poor quality of construction suggests 105 mph is a better estimate.||The strongest portion of the tornado, rated EF1, flattened at least six poorly built mobile home structures, removed part of the second story of a local business, and removed the majority of roof decking on at least ten other residences and buildings. At least a half dozen ash and mesquite trees were snapped or uprooted and two wooden power poles were bent. Casualties were found in several of the demolished mobile homes. A man in his forties was killed when the home collapsed on him. Five others were injured in the same cluster of damaged homes, and two more were injured in a flattened mobile home near the shoreline of Laguna Madre Bay. Two of the injuries, in the home along the bayfront, required extended hospitalizations. Thirty-eight additional residents were displaced by the tornado and were housed at the local events center with American Red Cross assistance. In all, there was the one fatality and eleven injuries, of which two were critical head injuries. Surrounding the EF1 area, portions of roofs and shingles were removed from residences, large limbs were broken, and fences were knocked down.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS BRO issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:04 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:30 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 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 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.

Port Isabel-Cameron County Apt (PIL), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Brownsville radar (KBRO), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:05 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.