Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2009

EF0 tornado, North Zulch to Mecca, Texas, April 28, 2009

From North Zulch to Mecca, this EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Madison County on April 28, 2009, touching down at 4:00 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
April 28, 2009
Touchdown
4:00 PM CDT (21:00 UTC)
Lifted
4:02 PM CDT (21:02 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.9 miles (3.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Madison County
Touchdown point
30.932, -96.100
Lift-off point
30.946, -96.072
Record number
0904281500-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed west of the Houston metro area in the mid afternoon hours of the 27th and moved east across the Houston area around sunset. Severe thunderstorms redeveloped overnight across western Harris County and produced flash flooding that severely impacted roads and highways in and around Houston. Later that afternoon a lone cell developed between Hearne and College Station and produced several brief tornado touchdowns as it moved southeastward into Madison County.

A brief touchdown was observed near North Zulch in rural Madison County. This was the second reported tornado with this particular thunderstorm.

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

The warnings

22 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:38 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:45 UTC20:39 UTCFlood WatchHGX
14:51 UTC16:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningHGX
20:38 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningHGX
21:16 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
21:42 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningHGX
22:16 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningHGX
22:46 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningHGX
23:09 UTC01:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningHGX

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:06 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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 239 km from the path. April 28, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2009-04-28Temperature 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 -74792, lifted condensation level 748 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2009-04-28The 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 42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-74792 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
748 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 239 km from the path. April 29, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2009-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 310 joules per kilogram, CIN -46, lifted condensation level 600 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 2009-04-29The 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 9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.193958Sfc1 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
310 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-46 J/kg
Surface CAPE
651 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
600 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:00 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
20:26 UTCTORNADO10 Se FranklinRobertson, TXPUBLIC REPORTS A TORNADO TOUCHDOWN AT OSR AND EDGE CUTOFF. RELAYED BY MEDIA
20:41 UTCTORNADO 010 Nnw KurtenBrazos, TXTORNADO SPOTTED AT OSR AND EDGE CUTOFF NEAR THE ROBERTSON/BRAZOS BORDER.
20:41 UTCTORNADO10 Wsw North ZulchBrazos, TXTORNADO SPOTTED AT OSR AND EDGE CUTOFF NEAR THE ROBERTSON/BRAZOS BORDER.
21:00 UTCTORNADONorth ZulchMadison, TXTORNADO SPOTTED IN WESTERN MADISON COUNTY.
22:30 UTCTORNADO7 Wsw MadisonvilleMadison, TXTORNADO SPOTTED NEAR HIGHWAY 39 JUST SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 21 NEAR COTTONWOOD.
23:09 UTCFLASH FLOODNormangeeMadison, TXOSR CLOSED BETWEEN FM1452 AND NORMAGEE DUE TO HIGH WATER.

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 28, 2009

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 283:26 PM CDTEF0Robertson, TX0.150
April 283:41 PM CDTEF0Brazos, TX3.210
April 285:30 PM CDTEF0Madison, TX2.410
April 287:25 PM MDTEF0Eddy, NM4.6150

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.