EF0 tornado, Silverton, Texas, June 13, 2009

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

June 13, 2009

Touchdown

6:51 PM CDT (23:51 UTC)

Lifted

6:52 PM CDT (23:52 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Briscoe County

Touchdown point

34.414, -101.232

Lift-off point

34.414, -101.218

Record number

0906131751-01

An active round of severe thunderstorm occurred over the west Texas South Plains during the afternoon and evening hours of the 13th. Several storms evolved into supercells, and produced very large hail, destructive winds, and weak tornadoes.||Thunderstorms initiated around 14:00 CST over the central South Plains, and quickly became severe with large hail initially reported in Lubbock (Lubbock County). More intense and organized supercell storms formed over the Rolling Plains by the mid to late afternoon hours, however, and moved southeastward. One particularly organized and long-lived high precipitation supercell impacted the Aspermont vicinity of Stonewall County, where it produced a swath of damaging winds and at least one tornado. A 100 mph wind gust and a corresponding 32 millibar pressure drop was measured when the tornado struck the Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet site northeast of Aspermont. Although no injuries were reportedly related to the tornado, severe gusts north of Aspermont overturned a tractor trailer truck injuring the driver.||Additional supercells impacted portions of Briscoe and Hale Counties, and very large wind-blown hail caused damages in both counties. Two tornadoes were observed by storm chasers in the Silverton and Quitaque vicinity of southern Briscoe County. ||Total economic damages were estimated near $650,000 across the South Plains region.

Multiple storm chasers, including off-duty National Weather Service meteorologists, and local law enforcement officials reported witnessing a brief tornado southwest of Silverton shortly after 17:30 CST. The tornado reportedly appeared as a narrow rope condensation funnel which extended more than half way to the surface with a brief dust whirl noted at the ground. The tornado remained in open country and no damage was reported.

The previously tornadic supercell near Silverton continued to move east and produced a second tornado southeast of the city shortly before 18:00 CST. Storm chasers witnessed the rope-shaped tornado for approximately one minute as it emerged from precipitation. The tornado occurred in open country and no damage was reported.

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.

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 20:15 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 Lubbock radar (KLBB), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:48 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

10 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.