TornadoLookup

Home / Texas / Calhoun

EF1 tornado in Calhoun County, Texas

Tornado March 29, 2018 · Calhoun County, Texas

EF1
Rating
0.4 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

An EF-1 tornado touched down in north part of the community of Seadrift on Oakland Avenue and traveled to the east-northeast to North 3rd Street. The tornado flipped several mobile homes and completely destroyed one mobile home near the intersection of West Denver Avenue and North 4th Street. A truck and boat were capsized. Several homes experienced roof damage and several outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. Eight homes were destroyed with one home sustaining major damage and two homes receiving minor damage. Estimated peak wind from the tornado was 110 mph.

The wider storm

During the early evening hours on March 28th, isolated severe thunderstorms developed across northern Mexico and Deep South Texas. Storms formed within an environment of very unstable air and very strong vertical wind shear in advance of an approaching cold front with assistance from an approaching upper level disturbance. Severe storms occurred across the Brush Country during the evening. The storms congealed into a squall line late in the evening. Large hail and winds of at least 60 mph were observed with several of these storms across the Brush Country. During the early morning hours on March 29th, the squall line intensified as it advanced into the Coastal Bend and the Victoria area. Widespread winds between 40 and 60 mph were observed behind the squall line during this time. Sufficient low level shear in the lowest several thousand feet existed to produce mesovortices along the squall line. Several of these mesovortices produced tornadoes across the Coastal Bend during the early morning hours.

Began near Seadrift (28.4186, -96.7174).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 745597. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.