A cold front progressed south out of Kansas. It was heading towards an environment of 1500-2500 J/Kg and effective shear of 20-35 kts in the eastern Panhandles.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS AMA wrote it up.
A cold front progressed south out of Kansas. It was heading towards an environment of 1500-2500 J/Kg and effective shear of 20-35 kts in the eastern Panhandles. As a result, a short lived tornado did occur over northern Hansford County, TX as seen with photographic evidence.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Amarillo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 9, 5:12 PM CST, 8 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED National Weather Service Amarillo TX 612 PM CDT FRI SEP 9 2016 .AVIATION... North to northeast winds are expected to pick up into the 25 to 30 knot range with higher gusts at all TAF sites by around 03z behind a cold front. We may need to consider an airport weather warning for AMA. Any showers or thunderstorms are expected to stay south and east DHT and GUY. Showers and thunderstorms will remain too isolated to mention in the TAF at AMA. Northeast winds will gradually decrease by Saturday afternoon and they will start to swing more around to the east and southeast by late in the afternoon. Low clouds could make a brief visit to the DHT and GUY TAF sites before sunrise, but confidence is not high enough to mention them in the TAFS at this point. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /Issued 306 PM CDT FRI SEP 9 2016/ DISCUSSION... Winds across the northwestern zones have remained out of a northerly direction over the course of the day Today with the main push of the cold front still over Kansas. Rain chances are expected to increase as we go into the evening hours with the greatest chances across the eastern Panhandles. This is where we have our highest instability and the better deep layer shear. LAPS analysis shows the eastern Panhandles have roughly 1500 to 2500 J/kg of mixed layer CAPE and effective shear in the 20 to 35kt range over the next few hours. This provides us with a chance for a few strong to marginally severe storms this evening with the better chances for these storms to occur across the eastern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas Panhandles. The main hazard with any storm that becomes strong to marginally severe would be damaging wind gusts. PWATs across the east remain heightened so brief heavy rain leading to the development of flooding will be a possibility. Storm chances drop off quickly as the cold front pushes south of the area. The front is anticipated to push quickly to the south across the Panhandles with some models showing the front being completely south of us by 6Z to 9Z Saturday morning (1 AM CDT to 4 AM CDT). Behind the front, winds will pick up quiet noticeably with the potential to briefly hit wind advisory sustained winds (35 mph). The strongest of these winds are anticipated to be along the western Panhandles where the influence of the barrier jet will be felt the most, and we could see wind gusts approaching 50 mph. Strong post frontal winds are expected to last into the late morning hours before shifting out of the east and becoming light. High temperatures on Saturday are expected to mid to upper 70s. The Panhandles recover quickly Sunday into Monday as temperatures return to the 80s to near 90s. Another cold front will push into the Panhandles late Monday night and bring a return of rain chances. This frontal passage will usher in a prolonged period of cooler temperatures and prolonged rain chances. Once the front pushes through the upper flow will become southwesterly with several shortwaves embedded in the flow. While there will likely be lulls in rain chances periodically through Thursday of next week, timing of these lulls will highly be dependent on the timing of these embedded shortwaves. && .AMA Watches/Warnings/Advisories... TX...None. OK...None. && 15/10
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX 306 PM CDT FRI SEP 9 2016 OKZ001>003-TXZ001>020-100815- CIMARRON-TEXAS-BEAVER-DALLAM-SHERMAN-HANSFORD-OCHILTREE-LIPSCOMB- HARTLEY-MOORE-HUTCHINSON-ROBERTS-HEMPHILL-OLDHAM-POTTER-CARSON- GRAY-WHEELER-DEAF SMITH-RANDALL-ARMSTRONG-DONLEY-COLLINGSWORTH- 306 PM CDT FRI SEP 9 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA PANHANDLES. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT. WHILE WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED...A FEW STORMS COULD BECOME STRONG TO MARGINALLY SEVERE WITH THE MAIN HAZARDS BEING DAMAGING WIND GUSTS AND LOCALIZED HEAVY RAIN. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME HOWEVER...AN ISOLATED STRONG STORM COULD BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN AND STRONG WIND GUSTS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME.
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
429 PM CDT FRI SEP 9 2016
OKZ003-092200-
BEAVER OK-
429 PM CDT FRI SEP 9 2016
...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR NORTHEASTERN BEAVER COUNTY UNTIL
500 PM CDT...
AT 428 PM CDT...DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING A STRONG THUNDERSTORM NEAR
FORGAN...OR 8 MILES NORTH OF BEAVER...MOVING EAST AT 15 MPH.
NICKEL SIZE HAIL AND WIND GUSTS OF 50 TO 55 MPH WILL BE POSSIBLE WITH
THIS STORM.
LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
FORGAN...GATE...KNOWLES AND MOCANE.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
TAKE SHELTER IN A STURDY BUILDING IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES.
THIS STORM MAY INTENSIFY...SO BE CERTAIN TO MONITOR LOCAL RADIO
STATIONS AND AVAILABLE TELEVISION STATIONS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
&&
LAT...LON 3678 10000 3665 10018 3686 10060 3700 10056
3700 10000
TIME...MOT...LOC 2128Z 282DEG 13KT 3694 10049
LGThe Amarillo radar (KAMA), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:18 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Brief tornado, likely a landspout, touched down north of Gruver. The event was witnessed by numerous residents who were attending a high school football game. No damage was reported as the tornado likely remained over open country. The location based off of radar.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Texas in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Texas, 2016Warnings in Texas, September 2016
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 657174.