EF0 tornado in Kleberg County, Texas

Tornado April 16, 2012 · Kleberg County, Texas

EF0

Rating

1.2 mi

Whole path

50 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Kleberg County → Kenedy County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Kleberg County official reported tornado near Farm to Market Road 771 east of Riviera.

Photo sent to the office confirmed the tornado report.

The wider storm

A nearly stationary cold front along with plentiful moisture, an unstable airmass and a strong upper level disturbance set the stage for the development of 4 tornadoes, heavy rainfall, and flooding across the Coastal Bend during the morning hours of April 16th.

Three tornadoes occurred in San Patricio County and 1 tornado in Kleberg County during the morning of the 16th. The tornadoes occurred in the Portland-Gregory area between 523 and 620 AM CDT on the 16th. One of these was rated as an EF-1. Around 50 homes in Portland sustained wind damage along with lots of tree and fence damage. The other two tornadoes near Gregory were rated as EF-0. The lone tornado in Kleberg county was rated an EF-0.

During the morning hours on the 16th, storms continued to develop and move over the same areas due to the upper level flow remaining parallel to the front. This resulted in persistent shower and thunderstorm development over the Coastal Bend and Victoria areas. The result was widespread heavy rainfall between 2 and 6 inches with isolated amounts up to 15 inches over eastern San Patricio and southern Refugio Counties. Devastating floods occurred in Gregory with nearly 80% of the homes flooded. Other reports of flooding occured in Nueces, Refugio and eastern San Patricio counties.

Began near Riviera Beach (27.2940, -97.7050).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 San Patricio County EF0 San Patricio County EF0 San Patricio County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 377994. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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