Tornadoes · United States · Hawaii · 2009

EF0 tornado, Barbers Pt Housing, Hawaii, February 11, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Honolulu County on February 11, 2009, touching down at 1:05 PM HST and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1.

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
February 11, 2009
Touchdown
1:05 PM HST (23:05 UTC)
Lifted
1:13 PM HST (23:13 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
County
Honolulu County
Touchdown point
21.340, -158.064
Lift-off point
21.345, -158.064
Record number
0902111705-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Trade winds died and convective weather developed across the island chain. This resulted in heavy showers and thunderstorms forming over Oahu, the Big Island of Hawaii, and Maui.||Especially strong sea breeze conditions in southwest Oahu produced a tornado in the afternoon of February 11th. One man suffered minor injuries at the Kapolei Golf Course, and there was damage to a roof and golf cart. No damage estimate was available.

A weak tornado touched down near the Kapolei Golf Course, and damaged a golf cart and roof. One man in his 30's, an employee of the course, was injured while he was helping another person escape the strong winds.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:05 UTC01:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryHFO
23:27 UTC00:07 UTCFlash Flood WarningHFO
02:59 UTC03:47 UTCFlood AdvisoryHFO

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 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.

Lihue, (PHLI), 12:00Z

11.1 hours before the tornado, 151 km from the path. February 11, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lihue, at 12:00Z on 2009-02-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 540 joules per kilogram, CIN -22, lifted condensation level 729 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, Lihue, at 12:00Z on 2009-02-11The 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 2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.193958Sfc1 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
540 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-22 J/kg
Surface CAPE
84 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
729 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lihue, (PHLI), 00:00Z

0.9 hours after it, 151 km from the path. February 12, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lihue, at 00:00Z on 2009-02-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 157 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 1280 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, Lihue, at 00:00Z on 2009-02-12The 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 -8 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.193958Sfc1 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
157 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1774 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1280 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Kalaeloa_airport (PHJR), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC7867240° 8 kt1019.6
22:53 UTC8065260° 9 kt1018.6
23:53 UTC7865330° 8 kt1018.3
00:53 UTC7966280° 10 kt1017.6

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

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:05 UTCTORNADO2 W Ewa BeachOahu In Honolulu, HIA WEAK TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN IN KAPOLEI NEAR THE KAPOLEI GOLF COURSE. THERE ARE UNCONFIRMED REPORTS OF MINOR ROOF DAMAGE AND A GOLF CART BEING PICKED UP BY STRONG WINDS IN THE VICINITY OF THE TORNADO.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in HawaiiEvery tornado in Hawaii since 1950Warnings in force in Hawaii nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 11, 2009

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 111:04 AM CSTEF1De Soto Parish, LA1.5150$150,000
February 112:03 PM CSTEF1Fentress, TN0.575$50,000
February 113:30 PM ESTEF1Delaware, IN0.1100$13,000
February 115:59 PM ESTEF0Russell, VA4.2200$30,000

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.