Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2008

EF0 tornado, Claude, Texas, June 14, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Armstrong County on June 14, 2008, touching down at 5:45 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $11,000 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 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
June 14, 2008
Touchdown
5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)
Lifted
5:46 PM CDT (22:46 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$11,000
County
Armstrong County
Touchdown point
35.110, -101.360
Lift-off point
35.111, -101.358
Record number
0806141645-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms moved from the south central Texas Panhandle into the northeast Texas Panhandle producing large hail...high winds and a tornado. No injuries were reported...however damage was reported from the high wind and tornado.

Photographic evidence supported a landspout tornado in Claude. The tornado destroyed a carport and snapped an eight inch diameter tree two feet above the ground. Also...house windows were blown out. The tornado path length and path width were estimated.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:51 UTC and running to 00:58 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:51 UTC00:58 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchAMA
21:41 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
21:44 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
21:49 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
22:49 UTC23:56 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
23:01 UTC00:27 UTCFlash Flood WarningAMA

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 34 km from the path. June 14, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 442 joules per kilogram, CIN -331, lifted condensation level 1444 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-06-14The 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 283 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
442 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-331 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1444 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
283 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
400 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 34 km from the path. June 15, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 272 joules per kilogram, CIN -304, lifted condensation level 2275 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-06-15The 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 300 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
272 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-304 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1237 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2275 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
300 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
470 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:43 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
21:30 UTCHAIL 0.888 S FritchCarson, TX
21:42 UTCHAIL 1.256 Sw GroomArmstrong, TXSTORM CHASER REPORTED HALF DOLLAR HAIL THAT STARTED AT 439 PM AND WAS ONGOING AT 442 PM.
22:08 UTCHAIL 0.88SkellytownCarson, TX
22:25 UTCHAIL 0.88PanhandleCarson, TX
22:29 UTCHAIL 1PanhandleCarson, TXRELAYED FROM NWS LBB
22:31 UTCHAIL 0.88PanhandleCarson, TXACCOMPANING WIND GUST TO 50 MPH
22:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 Wnw ClaudeArmstrong, TX8 INCH DIAMETER TREE LIMBS DOWN
22:45 UTCTORNADOClaudeArmstrong, TXPHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE SUPPORTING LANDSPOUT TORNADO IN CLAUDE. CARPORT DESTROYED AND 8 INCH DIAMETER TREE SNAPPED 2 FEET ABOVE GROUND...HOUSE WINDOWS WERE BLOWN OUT

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 June 14, 2008

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 145:55 PM CDTEF1Wilkin, MN2.150$150,000
June 146:15 PM CDTEF1Otter Tail, MN2.650$100,000
June 147:32 PM CDTEF0Barnes, ND5.125$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.