EF1 tornado, Henderson to Church Hill, Texas, May 2, 2008

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 2, 2008

Touchdown

11:21 AM CDT (16:21 UTC)

Lifted

11:26 AM CDT (16:26 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

6.4 miles (10.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Rusk County

Touchdown point

32.183, -94.764

Lift-off point

32.196, -94.656

Record number

0805021021-01

Severe thunderstorms developed under a very unstable airmass across portions of northeast Texas, southwest Arkansas and northwest Louisiana during the morning and afternoon hours of May 2nd. Strong shear in the lower levels of the atmosphere was present during the morning hours such that some thunderstorms produced tornadoes across northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas. Otherwise large hail was the primary severe weather threat with this storm system.

An EF1 tornado occurred northeast of Henderson, Texas along Hwy 43. A 24 by 24 foot foot metal building was completely destroyed and minor damage occurred to a house owned by the owner of a construction company. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along the path which ended 5.5 miles east along FM 1251. A hay barn was partially destroyed and several trees were uprooted and snapped around a home along FM 1251 in the Church Hill community. The path was 100 yards wide at its widest point. The tornado lifted before reaching CR 328 in Rusk County.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:21 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:49 UTC and running to 20:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:45 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.

Henderson Rusk C (F12), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:21 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

39 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.