Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2023

EF0 tornado, Bellevue, Texas, May 4, 2023

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Clay County on May 4, 2023, touching down at 7:06 PM CDT and reaching 20 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
May 4, 2023
Touchdown
7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Clay County
Touchdown point
33.638, -98.019
Lift-off point
33.638, -98.019
Record number
2305041806-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A northward extending subtropical jet fostered widespread thunderstorm development across the forecast area, generally along and south of I-40. Across western-north Texas, where higher magnitudes of instability and wind shear existed, a few supercell storms formed and produced reports of severe hail and wind. A brief tornado also occurred near the town of Bellevue, Texas in Clay County.

Two independent storm chasers got video of a small, brief tornado near US Highway 287 on the northwest side of Bellevue. 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 19:54 UTC and running to 01:04 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:54 UTC01:04 UTCTornado WatchOUN
22:59 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
23:05 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
23:15 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
23:34 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
23:55 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
00:11 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningOUN
00:16 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUN
08:48 UTC14:00 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryOUN

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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), 00:00Z

0.1 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. May 5, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2023-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1619 joules per kilogram, CIN -65, lifted condensation level 792 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 00:00Z on 2023-05-05The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1619 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1884 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
792 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

11.9 hours after it, 112 km from the path. May 5, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2023-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1742 joules per kilogram, CIN -171, lifted condensation level 747 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2023-05-05The 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 381 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
1742 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-171 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1839 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
747 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
381 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
357 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bowie (0F2), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:15 UTC79.365.5 1006.8
22:35 UTC79.265 1007.8
22:55 UTC78.865.7 1008.1
23:15 UTC7966.2 1008.1
23:35 UTC77.266.4 1008.1
23:55 UTC76.366.2 1007.1
00:15 UTC75.266.2 1006.8
00:35 UTC74.866.2 1007.5
00:55 UTC65.763.5 1008.8+RA
01:15 UTC6462.2 1008.8+RA
01:35 UTC63.761.7 1008.5
01:55 UTC6361.3 1009.1

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

The radar

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:02 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
00:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nw BellevueClay, TXPOWERLINES DOWN. TREE DAMAGE. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
00:08 UTCTORNADOBellevueClay, TXVIDEO EVIDENCE OF GROUND CIRCULATION UNDERNEATH WALL CLOUD WITH DAMAGE REPORTED IN AND NEAR THE TOWN OF BELLEVUE. TIME ESTIMATED FROM REPORTS AND RADAR.

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 May 4, 2023

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 48:45 AM PDTEF0Los Angeles, CA0.115
May 48:56 AM PDTEF0Los Angeles, CA0.715
May 49:09 PM CDTEF0Lane, KS0.01

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.