EF0 tornado, Godley to Joshua Arpt, Texas, March 31, 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

March 31, 2008

Touchdown

3:10 PM CDT (20:10 UTC)

Lifted

3:14 PM CDT (20:14 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

32.472, -97.467

Lift-off point

32.478, -97.442

Record number

0803311410-01

Showers and thunderstorms developed along a southward moving cold front on the 29th. Van Zandt and Hopkins Counties had reports of large hail, high winds, and flooding as the boundary wavered in the area on the 30th. Several supercells and a line of severe storms moved through north Texas on the evening of the 31st as a dry line approached from the west and the warm front remained nearby.

A storm survey conducted by the National Weather Service found that two tornadoes occurred in Johnson County. The first one damaged or rolled several sheds and outbuildings. Damage to fences was noted and power lines were downed. This tornado was rated an EF-0 with peak winds of 80 to 85 MPH.

A storm survey conducted by the National Weather Service in Fort Worth found that a second tornado began just east-northeast of Godley. A mobile home was rolled and destroyed with substantial damage to a nearby car. At least one shed was damaged and power lines were downed. This tornado was rated an EF-0 with maximum winds of 80-85 MPH. Some debris was carried approximately 75 yards from their original locations.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:02 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:00 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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 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 Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:08 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

20 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.