Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2008

EF1 tornado, Glen Rose to Nemo, Texas, April 10, 2008

From Glen Rose to Nemo, this EF1 tornado ran 7.6 miles across Somervell County on April 10, 2008, touching down at 3:03 AM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 of property damage.

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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
April 10, 2008
Touchdown
3:03 AM CDT (08:03 UTC)
Lifted
3:11 AM CDT (08:11 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
7.6 miles (12.2 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
County
Somervell County
Touchdown point
32.216, -97.789
Lift-off point
32.255, -97.667
Record number
0804100203-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Several rounds of storms moved across north Texas on April 8th through 10th. Numerous reports of large hail were received on Tuesday evening. A lone supercell evolved during the afternoon hours of the 9th, producing tornadoes and large hail along its path. Later that evening and into Thursday morning a squall line tracked across north Texas, producing damaging winds and tornadoes into the morning hours.

A residence west of Glen Rose suffered substantial damage to roofs, a porch, and a well house. About fifty trees were blown down or uprooted. Near Nemo on CR 419, numerous trees were damaged and an RV was destroyed. A front 12' by 50' porch was ripped off a house and numerous outbuildings were destroyed. A school in Nemo lost the roof of its music room. Officials observed that the damage seemed to occur in paths.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:00 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:40 UTC and running to 10:42 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:27 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WatchFWD
03:40 UTC10:42 UTCTornado WatchFWD
06:29 UTC00:00 UTCWind AdvisoryFWD
07:41 UTC08:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
08:00 UTC08:15 UTCTornado WarningFWD

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:01 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

8.1 hours before the tornado, 78 km from the path. April 10, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-04-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2061 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 537 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2008-04-10The 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 237 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
2061 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3204 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
537 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
337 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.9
Supercell composite
22.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.9 hours after it, 78 km from the path. April 10, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-04-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -368, lifted condensation level 1122 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2008-04-10The 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 -216 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 80 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-368 J/kg
Surface CAPE
62 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1122 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
80 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-216 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-100 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:03 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
07:40 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne Morgan MillErath, TXLARGE TREE BLOWN ONTO A HOME IN EXTREME NORTHEAST ERATH COUNTY
07:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 N StephenvilleErath, TXSTRUCTURAL DAMAGE REPORTED 5 MILES NORTH OF STEPHENVILLE ALONG 108 AND 426. ALSO NUMEROUS TREES DOWN ACROSS THE COUNTY
07:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGLipanHood, TXROOF PARTIALLY BLOWN OFF A HOUSE
07:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG10 Sw BenbrookParker, TXBEDROOM WINDOWS BLOWN INTO HOUSE.
08:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGGlen RoseSomervell, TXNUMEROUS STRUCTURES DAMAGED
08:09 UTCTSTM WND DMGGlen RoseSomervell, TXLARGE TREE DOWN IN GLEN ROSE
08:11 UTCTSTM WND DMGAledoParker, TXHOME SUSTAINED DAMAGE...DEBRIS THROUGH WINDOWS
08:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 Ne KeeneJohnson, TXWIDESPREAD DAMAGE BETWEEN I-35 AND LILLIAN. NUMEROUS ROOFS TORN OFF HOUSES AND NUMEROUS TREES DOWN.
08:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGBurlesonJohnson, TXNUMEROUS POWER FLASHES IN BURLESON. POWER POLES DOWN
08:30 UTCTORNADO4.5 N AlvaradoJohnson, TXSURVEY TEAM CONFIRMED EF-1 TORNADO DEVELOPED NEAR HAPPY HILLS AND TRAVELED NE APPROX 3 MILES TO NEAR PLEASANT POINT.
09:04 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 N StephenvilleErath, TXSTRUCTURAL DAMAGE REPORTED 5 MILES NORTH OF STEPHENVILLE ALONG 108 AND 426. ALSO NUMEROUS TREES DOWN ACROSS THE COUNTY
09:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGHillsboroHill, TXLARGE TREE DOWN OVER COUNTY ROAD 4281

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 10, 2008

32 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 101:35 AM CDTEF1Brown, TX1.5125$150,000
April 103:30 AM CDTEF1Johnson, TX2.950$25 million
April 104:00 AM CDTEF1Dallas, TX2.040$1.0 million
April 104:04 AM CDTEF1Collin, TX7.2175$12 million
April 104:05 AM CDTEF0Bell, TX6.4100$500,000
April 104:29 AM CDTEF1Sharp, AR1.0200$10,000
April 104:56 AM CDTEF0Sequoyah, OK2.0150
April 105:15 AM CDTEF2Adair, OK2.8300$100,000
April 105:26 AM CDTEF2Adair, OK to AR9.0400$125,000
April 105:50 AM CDTEF2Washington, AR3.0600$125,000
April 106:02 AM CDTEF1Madison, AR0.8200$10,000
April 106:20 AM CDTEF1Madison, AR10.7900$100,000
April 107:55 AM CDTEF0Douglas, MO0.375$40,000
April 108:12 AM CDTEF2Bowie, TX5.52001$1.0 million
April 108:15 AM CDTEF0Howell, MO3.3150
April 1010:56 AM CDTEF1Grant, AR15.1175$30,000
April 104:33 PM CDTEF0Wayne, IA0.620
April 104:49 PM CDTEF0Wayne, IA0.420
April 104:57 PM CDTEF1Appanoose, IA2.030$75,000
April 105:10 PM CDTEF1Appanoose, IA2.950$75,000
April 105:43 PM CDTEF1Mahaska, IA3.050$100,000
April 105:55 PM CDTEF0Adams, IL9.150
April 106:16 PM CDTEF2Van Buren, IA1.8220$150,000
April 106:21 PM CDTEF1Poweshiek, IA7.650$100,000
April 106:25 PM CDTEF1Van Buren, IA5.350$30,000
April 106:30 PM CDTEF1Hancock, IL1.6150$100,000
April 106:33 PM CDTEF0Hancock, IL0.250$20,000
April 106:35 PM CDTEF0Hancock, IL0.875$30,000
April 106:36 PM CDTEF0Poweshiek, IA2.425$50,000
April 107:03 PM CDTEF0Keokuk, IA1.8100$50,000
April 107:05 PM CDTEF0Keokuk, IA0.025
April 108:30 PM CDTEF0Buchanan, MO0.330$70,000

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.