Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2009

EF0 tornado, Easterly, Texas, April 18, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Robertson County on April 18, 2009, touching down at 9:30 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $4,000 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
April 18, 2009
Touchdown
9:30 AM CDT (14:30 UTC)
Lifted
9:31 AM CDT (14:31 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$4,000
County
Robertson County
Touchdown point
31.130, -96.370
Lift-off point
31.130, -96.370
Record number
0904180830-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered severe thunderstorms developed across the southern counties of north Texas in a warm air advection regime ahead of an approaching upper level low. One brief tornado was spotted near Easterly in Robertson County.

A brief tornado near Easterly tore down trees, fences, and power lines.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:24 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:41 UTC12:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
14:24 UTC14:45 UTCTornado WarningFWD

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 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 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

2.5 hours before the tornado, 208 km from the path. April 18, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2009-04-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 85 joules per kilogram, CIN -271, lifted condensation level 646 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2009-04-18The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
85 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-271 J/kg
Surface CAPE
81 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
646 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

9.5 hours after it, 208 km from the path. April 19, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2009-04-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1095 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 787 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2009-04-19The 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 87 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1095 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1673 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
787 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:31 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
12:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 E RosebudMilam, TXROOF/STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO BARN NEAR ROSEBUD. RELAYED BY VFD.
14:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGFranklinRobertson, TXTREES AND POWERLINES DOWN IN TOWN. SOME WINDOWS BROKEN. MOTORCYCLE THROWN. POSSIBLE TORNADO.
14:30 UTCTORNADO10 Ne FranklinRobertson, TXBRIEF TORNADO SPOTTED NEAR EASTERLY. TREES...POWERLINES....AND FENCE DOWN. SHOOK HOUSE. REPORT RELAYED BY EM.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 18, 2009

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 1812:57 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.550
April 181:29 PM CDTEF0Gray, KS0.7100
April 182:02 PM CDTEF0Finney, KS2.1125
April 182:10 PM CDTEF2Hodgeman, KS9.0300
April 182:25 PM CDTEF0Finney, KS0.675
April 184:00 PM CDTEF0Galveston, TX1.130$50,000
April 187:15 PM CDTEF0Saint Landry Parish, LA0.010$3,000
April 188:05 PM CDTEF1Logan, OK0.5150
April 188:20 PM CDTEF0Saint Landry Parish, LA0.225$5,000
April 189:10 PM CDTEF0Saint Landry Parish, LA5.3100$25,000

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.