EF2 tornado, Hughes Spgs to Atlanta Muni Arpt, Texas, April 9, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 9, 2009

Touchdown

8:05 PM CDT (01:05 UTC)

Lifted

8:31 PM CDT (01:31 UTC)

On the ground

26 minutes

Path length

16.8 miles (27.0 km)

Path width

190 yards (174 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Cass County

Touchdown point

33.054, -94.486

Lift-off point

33.062, -94.197

Record number

0904091905-01

A strong upper level storm system along with a surface dry line/front |over northeast Texas moved east during the evening hours of April 9th into the early morning hours of April 10th causing long lived supercell thunderstorms. These thunderstorms caused long track tornadoes to occur across southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, northeast Texas, and north Louisiana.

This storm developed about 100 yards inside the Morris County line, very near the Cass County line, about 5 miles northwest of Hughes Springs. This tornado first touched down just west of County Line Road near FM 130 in eastern Morris County, continuing east across CR 2865, before lifting near FM 250 north of FM 130. Numerous trees were uprooted and snapped, with power lines downed as well. This tornado was rated an EF1, with winds of around 90 mph.

This storm developed about 5 miles northwest of Linden in central Cass County near CR 1459 around 8:05 pm. Numerous trees were downed, with a tree crushing a truck, and another tree falling through the roof of a house. This tornado intensified along CR 1399, where a two-story home was nearly destroyed. The storm continued east across Highway 8 about 2 miles north of Linden, where the roof of a two story house was torn off, and a portable building behind the home was blown nearly 400 yards east across Highway 8 into some nearby woods. The tornado lifted around 8:31 pm near the intersection of CR 2328 and Highway 43 about a mile and a half north of Bivins. This tornado was rated an EF2, with winds around 125 mph. The path length was nearly 16 miles long, with a path width of 190 yards.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:46 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 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.

Texarkana Regional/Webb (TXK), 55 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:06 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

21 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.