EF2 tornado, Rule to Sagerton, Texas, June 13, 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

June 13, 2009

Touchdown

6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)

Lifted

6:42 PM CDT (23:42 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

3.6 miles (5.7 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Haskell County

Touchdown point

33.200, -99.950

Lift-off point

33.170, -99.900

Record number

0906131730-01

On June 13, thunderstorms developed along an outflow boundary across Northwest Texas. A supercell thunderstorm moved southeast across Haskell County and produced a strong tornado. There was significant damage near Rule. Also, large hail and widespread 60 to 70 mph winds were reported with this severe storm.

A National Weather Service survey team found a quarter mile wide EF2 tornado that tore the roof off of four homes and desroyed several outbuildings, irrigation sprinklers, and power poles.

A photo of this tornado over an open field was capatured by a passerby using a cell phone camera. The path length was estimated and the times were synchronized with radar data.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:17 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 04:00 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 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.

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.