EF0 tornado, Anson to Stith, Texas, April 23, 2008

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 23, 2008

Touchdown

4:29 PM CDT (21:29 UTC)

Lifted

4:32 PM CDT (21:32 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jones County

Touchdown point

32.570, -99.940

Lift-off point

32.570, -99.940

Record number

0804231529-01

Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms developed along and north of Interstate 20 in a region of very unstable air and strong wind shear as a strong upper level disturbance approached from the southwest. Two supercell thunderstorms developed along the dryline, then moved east into the Big Country where the first report of a brief tornado touched down south of the town of Rotan. These storms continued to move east towards the U.S. Highway 277 corridor where one of the supercells rapidly intensified just west of Anson. Straight line winds associated with a powerful rear flank downdraft caused widespread damage across Anson and surrounding rural areas. Many power poles were snapped just north of Anson on U.S. Highway 277. Many trees were either uprooted or had their branches snapped by the severe thunderstorm wind gusts. High winds caused roof damage, destroyed outbuildings, and overturned tractor trailers. Winds were estimated at 70 to 90 mph. An EF0 tornado with winds estimated at 65 to 85 mph caused damage to power poles 5 miles north of Anson and caused some roof damage to a home 5 miles west-southwest of Avoca. This severe thunderstorm weakened slightly as it moved east before strengthening once again just east of Albany where more wind damage was reported as well as another report of a tornado by storm chasers. Widespread hail damaged crops, homes, and automobiles, with sizes ranging from quarter to baseball size. There was also reports of flash flooding in the town of Lueders.

Anson Fire Department officials reported a brief tornado 4 miles southwest of Anson.

A storm chaser reported a brief tornado about 8 miles west-southwest of the town of Hawley.

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

49 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:40 UTC, 49 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:28 UTC and running to 01:53 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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 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.

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:29 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.

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

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

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

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.