EF1 tornado, Garden Vly to Hoard, Texas, February 10, 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

February 10, 2009

Touchdown

11:16 PM CST (05:16 UTC)

Lifted

11:25 PM CST (05:25 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

7.1 miles (11.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$400,000

Counties

Wood and Smith counties

Touchdown point

32.578, -95.497

Lift-off point

32.664, -95.430

Record number

0902102316-01

A strong storm system in the upper levels of the atmosphere encountered a moderately unstable airmass across northeast Texas, southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas and northern Louisiana. This storm system was in association with a 70kt low level jet and 160kt upper level jet. The lower atmosphere was strongly sheared with strong supercell thunderstorms across northern Texas and southern Oklahoma which produced strong tornadoes. As the storm system moved further east during the late evening hours of February 10th and the predawn hours of February 11th, the convection developed into a squall line which produced numerous reports of straight line wind gusts along with a few hail reports. There were also isolated tornadoes embedded within the squall line across Smith County in northeast Texas and Desoto Parish in northwest Louisiana.

A newly constructed second story barn near Lindale TX (CR 482 and CR 483) was destroyed. Three metal buildings/sheds were destroyed along the path. Numerous trees were damaged in Smith County. Minor shingle damage occurred to several homes. The tornado continued into Wood County, Texas.

In Wood County, a volunteer fire station roof collapsed, and a manufactured home roof was peeled back on one side. Several other homes nearby north of Hwy. 80 east of Mineola were damaged from falling trees and wind between Hwy. 80 and Farm to Market 1801.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:45 UTC and running to 07:25 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 153 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:14 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

9 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.