Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2009
EF1 tornado, Galveston, Texas, August 30, 2009
This EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Galveston County on August 30, 2009, touching down at 9:50 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, and did $500,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- August 30, 2009
- Touchdown
- 9:50 PM CDT (02:50 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:55 PM CDT (02:55 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 3
- Property damage
- $500,000
- County
- Galveston County
- Touchdown point
- 29.285, -94.794
- Lift-off point
- 29.287, -94.797
- Record number
- 0908302050-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Several strong thunderstorms formed late in the evening near Galveston Island along a nearly stationary surface front. A waterspout developed off the coast near Galveston Island before moving inland and doing damage as a tornado.
The tornado began as a waterspout moved onto the beach near 29th Street and Seawall Blvd. A police cruiser had its windows blown out and the roof of a souvenir shop at 29th and Seawall was blown off. Further inland, a house on stilts was blown over and the roof of a mobile home was peeled back. A two-story home at the intersection of 31st Street and Avenue Q 1/2 at the end of the damage track had its roof completely removed. Numerous trees and fences also sustained damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
2 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:48 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:48 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | HGX |
| 03:46 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | HGX |
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 00:58 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 radar
The Houston radar (KHGX), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:49 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:41 UTC | WATER SPOUT | Galveston | Galveston, TX | 200 YARDS OFF THE COAST NEAR 33RD ST. |
| 02:48 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 7 Ne Galveston | Galveston, TX | *** 3 INJ *** WATERSPOUT MOVED ONSHORE AND SEVERELY DAMAGED A GIFT SHOP AT 29TH STREET AND SEAWALL BLVD WITH WINDOWS BLOWN OUT AND HALF OF METAL ROOF REMOVED. WINDOWS OF A PATROL CAR WERE BLOWN OUT IN THE SAME AREA. DAMA |
| 02:49 UTC | TORNADO 0 | Galveston | Galveston, TX | *** 3 INJ *** WATERSPOUT MOVED ONSHORE BETWEEN 33RD AND 29TH STREETS. BLEW WINDOW OUT OF A POLICE CAR AND TOOK THE ROOF OFF A SOUVENIR SHOP ON THE 2900 BLOCK OF SEA WALL BLVD. THREE INJURED FROM EITHER SHATTERED VEHICLE |
| 02:49 UTC | TORNADO | Galveston | Galveston, TX | WATERSPOUT MOVED ONSHORE BETWEEN 37TH AND 25TH STREETS. BLEW WINDOW OUT OF POLICE CAR AND TOOK ROOF OFF A BUILDING. |
| 03:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 59 | Galveston | Galveston, TX |
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 August 30, 2009
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 30 | 3:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Aransas, TX | 3.5 | 25 | $10,000 |
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.