Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2008

EF0 tornado, Quitaque, Texas, June 8, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Briscoe County on June 8, 2008, touching down at 9:15 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 8, 2008
Touchdown
9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Briscoe County
Touchdown point
34.517, -100.976
Lift-off point
34.517, -100.976
Record number
0806082015-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated to scattered severe thunderstorms developed over the west Texas South Plains during the afternoon and evening hours of the 8th. The most significant severe weather occurred in association with a supercell thunderstorm that tracked over portions of Briscoe and Hall Counties. Giant baseball size hail and at least one brief tornado accompanied the storm. Elsewhere, storms produced large hail up to the size of golf balls over the northern and western South Plains.

The Turkey Fire Department observed a brief tornado near the Briscoe and Hall County line. The tornado remained in open country west of Texas Highway 70, and south of Farm to Market Road 256. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

33 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:42 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:15 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
00:14 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
01:13 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
01:42 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningLUB
02:15 UTC02:41 UTCTornado WarningLUB

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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:52 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), 00:00Z

2.3 hours before the tornado, 103 km from the path. June 9, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2008-06-09Temperature 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 -71172, lifted condensation level 4290 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2008-06-09The 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 -15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-71172 J/kg
Surface CAPE
823 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
4290 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
125 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
10.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.7 hours after it, 103 km from the path. June 9, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2008-06-09Temperature 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 -74082, lifted condensation level 1404 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2008-06-09The 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 59 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74082 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1404 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
59 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Childress Municipal (CDS), 64 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:53 UTC9163180° 25 kt361004.1
01:53 UTC8962180° 22 kt301004.7
02:53 UTC8962180° 23 kt321005.4
03:53 UTC8761170° 17 kt281006.1

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

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:15 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
23:42 UTCHAIL 1.510 E KressSwisher, TXNORTH OF CLAYTONVILLE AT INTERSECTION 2301 AND 86
23:43 UTCHAIL 1.7510 E KressSwisher, TXNORTH OF CLAYTONVILLE AT INTERSECTION 2301 AND 86
00:08 UTCHAIL 0.88Mackenzie ReservoirBriscoe, TXACCOMPANIED BY EXTREMELY STRONG WINDS
00:30 UTCHAIL 0.88Mackenzie ReservoirBriscoe, TX
00:30 UTCHAIL 1Mackenzie ReservoirBriscoe, TXNICKEL TO QUARTER
02:00 UTCHAIL 1.2519 N QuitaqueBriscoe, TX
02:14 UTCHAIL 2.7512 Nw TurkeyBriscoe, TXCHASER LOCATED 1...2 MILE SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 256...70...REPORTED A FINGER FUNNEL FROM THE WALL CLOUD
02:15 UTCTORNADO8 Nnw TurkeyBriscoe, TXRELAYED BY QUITAQUE FIRE DEPT...TORNADO AT 0915 PM
02:48 UTCHAIL 2.7518 Wnw EstellineHall, TX
05:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 601 E HowardwickDonley, TX
05:00 UTCHAIL 1HowardwickDonley, TX

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 8, 2008

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 82:10 AM CDTEF2Sarpy, NE10.84403
June 82:12 AM CDTEF1Douglas, NE8.1440
June 82:20 PM EDTEF1Osceola, MI5.3880
June 83:45 PM EDTEF1Eaton, MI9.71501
June 83:59 PM EDTEF1Ingham, MI0.5150
June 83:35 PM CDTEF0Taylor, IA1.370$50,000
June 84:55 PM EDTEF1Lee, FL5.3301$100,000
June 84:10 PM CDTEF1Marshall, IA1.075$30,000
June 87:30 PM CDTEF1Wapello, IA2.1100$75,000

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.