EF1 tornado, Shallowater Arpt to Cotton Center, Texas, April 16, 2009

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

April 16, 2009

Touchdown

8:56 PM CDT (01:56 UTC)

Lifted

9:20 PM CDT (02:20 UTC)

On the ground

24 minutes

Path length

7.6 miles (12.2 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$130,000

Counties

Lubbock and Hale counties

Touchdown point

33.730, -102.070

Lift-off point

33.840, -102.050

Record number

0904161956-01

A severe weather outbreak occurred over west Texas during the afternoon and evening hours of the 16th and resulted in significant public impacts. Despite the occurrence of thirteen tornadoes across the South Plains region, most of the damage resulted from destructive hail and heavy rainfall. ||Thunderstorms first developed over the northern South Plains around 13:00 CST. These early afternoon storms initiated as supercells, but transitioned into a small-scale convective complex that produced extensive amounts of large hail and heavy rainfall. As the storms trained over the Interstate 27 corridor in Swisher County, a significant hail accumulation and flood event resulted in some 50 vehicles becoming stalled and a prolonged closure of the highway through the overnight hours.||Additional storms developed during the mid to late afternoon hours over the central South Plains. Two supercell thunderstorms impacted Lubbock County. One of these storms produced a destructive hail swath through the city of Lubbock damaging some 3,000 homes and more than 1,100 vehicles totaling an estimated $40 million in damages. Meanwhile a second supercell storm over eastern Lubbock County produced a family of weak tornadoes along U.S. Highway 82 east of Idalou. ||Other supercell storms impacted portions of Garza and Kent Counties during the late afternoon and early evening hours. These storms additionally produced damaging hail and brief tornadoes.||By late evening, storm modes transitioned toward broken convective complexes and multicell structures. An unstable low-level environment, however, continued to be characterized by an increasingly enhanced veering of the wind fields. Thus, despite a transition toward less discrete storm cells, the threat for tornadoes remained. Multiple small scale low-level circulations developed within the evolving convective complexes, and these circulations proved to be tornadic. An EF-1 tornado damaged five structures and downed power poles as it tracked nearly eight miles across northwestern Lubbock County and southwestern Hale County around 20:00 CST. Two additional EF-1 tornadoes impacted the Abernathy (Hale County) and Roosevelt (Lubbock County) areas through the 21:00 CST hour. Meanwhile, similar tornadic circulations developed within other storm complexes over portions of Dickens, Kent, and King Counties. Multiple reports of tornadoes were received from rural areas around the Spur, Girard, and Guthrie vicinities but no damages resulted.||In all, an estimated $41.3 million in damages and three injuries resulted from severe weather across the South Plains region of west Texas on the 16th.

A relatively long-lived, but weak (EF-1), tornado developed rapidly within a convective complex over northwestern Lubbock County shortly before 20:00 CST and tracked north-northeastward into southwestern Hale County. ||The tornadic circulation was initially embedded within heavy rain, but was well sampled at close range by the Lubbock, Texas (KLBB) WSR-88D radar. The tornado developed just south of U.S. Highway 84 at 19:56 CST. The tornado quickly crossed U.S. Highway 84 five miles northwest of Shallowater, where a National Weather Service damage survey team found tumble weeds suspended within utility wires. The tornado then tracked north-northeastward to the west of Farm to Market Road 179. The tornado downed utility poles, damaged four structures, a livestock trailer, and additionally uprooted a large tree before crossing the Lubbock and Hale County line one mile west of the County Line community. ||Two mobile homes sustained minor damage from the tornado. Skirting was removed from one home, and mud splatters were evident on the structure. A large roof panel was additionally removed from a second mobile home along county roads west of Farm to Market 179. A well-built permanent house sustained minor damage immediately southwest of County Line, near the Lubbock and Hale County line. A carport and outbuilding were destroyed at the residence and minor roof damage occurred from debris loaded wind. In addition, a large metal garage structure on the property was partially collapsed when tornadic winds caused the door to fail. A large boat stored within the structure was subsequently damaged when it was pushed by wind-loaded debris through a portion of the structure's back wall. ||By 20:15 CST drier air began to occlude the tornadic circulation. This allowed visibility around the tornado to improve and a National Weather Service employee began witnessing and photographing the tornado and associated utility power flashes as it approached the Lubbock and Hale County line. The tornado blew down approximately a dozen wooden utility poles along its path as it crossed into Hale County one mile west of the County Line community at 20:16 CST. ||The tornado continued until 20:20 CST in southwestern Hale County, where it resulted in additional damages to farm implements, utility poles, and an oil field shed. Damages to the two mobile homes, a single family residence and metal garage, trees, and to wooden utility poles support an EF-1 rating with estimated wind speeds between 85 and 95 mph. The tornado traveled nearly eight miles between 19:56 CST and 20:20 CST and accounted for $130,000 in damages along its path in Lubbock and Hale Counties. No injuries were reported.

A relatively long-lived, but weak (EF-1), tornado developed rapidly within a convective complex over northwestern Lubbock County shortly before 20:00 CST and tracked north-northeastward into southwestern Hale County. ||The tornado crossed the Lubbock and Hale County line at 20:16 CST one mile west of County Line, where a number of wooden utility poles were downed. The tornado then tracked northward for more than a mile and resulted in damage at a farmstead where a cotton stripper basket was blown 250 yards and destroyed. The tornado additionally destroyed a small outbuilding near an oil field northwest of County Line. ||The tornado then dissipated as observed by close-range radar sampling and visually by a National Weather Service employee at 20:20 CST about a mile and a half northwest of County Line.||Damages to utility poles and the outbuilding, as well as damages to four structures and a large tree in northwestern Lubbock County support an EF-1 rating with wind speeds between 85 and 95 mph. The tornado traveled nearly eight miles between 19:56 CST and 20:20 CST, and accounted for a total of $130,000 in damages along its path in Lubbock and Hale Counties. No injuries were reported.

A tornadic circulation reformed within the Lubbock and Hale County convective complex, east of the dissipated County Line tornado's track. Although the tornado was never witnessed by spotters or local officials, the tornado vortex was well sampled at close range by the Lubbock, Texas (KLBB) WSR-88D radar, and damage subsequently confirmed that a tornado indeed occurred.||This tornado developed very near Farm to Market Road 54 at 20:26 CST, about five and a half miles west-northwest of Abernathy, and moved northward along a two mile long track. The weak tornado broke a number of tree limbs within a shelter belt at a homestead along Farm to Market Road 54, then collapsed a small privately-owned two-way radio tower northeast of the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 54 and 2528. Damage to the radio tower was determined to support an EF-1 rating with wind speeds estimated between 90 and 100 mph. The tornado then dissipated at 20:30 CST approximately eight miles northwest of Abernathy.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:42 UTC and running to 03:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

Lubbock International Airport (LBB), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:56 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 2009 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

15 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.