Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2009

EF0 tornado, Dalhart to (Dht)Dalhart Muni Ar, Texas, June 4, 2009

From Dalhart to (Dht)Dalhart Muni Ar, this EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Hartley County on June 4, 2009, touching down at 4:17 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 4, 2009
Touchdown
4:17 PM CDT (21:17 UTC)
Lifted
4:19 PM CDT (21:19 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hartley County
Touchdown point
35.983, -102.520
Lift-off point
35.987, -102.512
Record number
0906041517-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms moved off the higher terrain of New Mexico into the Panhandles during the evening. A moist and unstable air mass was located across the Panhandles...which allowed thunderstorms to intensify as they tracked across the area. Reports of hail...straight-line wind damage...and a few brief tornado touchdowns were received. No damage or injuries were reported from these storms.

A law enforcement official reported that a tornado touched down for about two minutes six miles south of Dalhart. The tornado tracked northeast and lifted about three miles southeast of the Dalhart Municipal Airport. The tornado remained over open country and no damage or injuries were reported.

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

The warnings

10 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:07 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:31 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:31 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchAMA
21:07 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
21:47 UTC22:24 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
22:04 UTC22:22 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
22:18 UTC22:49 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:07 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 air that afternoon

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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. June 4, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2009-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -7891, lifted condensation level 1281 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2009-06-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7891 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1281 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
138 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Dalhart Municipal (DHT), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC8550190° 10 kt151019
20:45 UTC82.446.4170° 11 kt191017.9TS
20:53 UTC7853140° 9 kt171017.6+TSRA
21:02 UTC75.257.2170° 11 kt161017.9-TSRA
21:12 UTC73.457.2200° 9 kt1017.9-TSRA
21:39 UTC71.653.6 4 kt1018.3TS
21:53 UTC7355200° 9 kt151018.6TS
22:00 UTC73.453.6180° 5 kt151018.3
22:53 UTC7650190° 11 kt1017.6
23:05 UTC75.250200° 9 kt1017.9VCTS

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

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:06 UTCHAIL 0.758 Se RomeroHartley, TXMOSTLY PEA SIZE HAIL WITH SOME PENNIES
22:20 UTCHAIL 12 Nw DumasMoore, TX
22:24 UTCHAIL 11 Ne DumasMoore, TX
22:40 UTCHAIL 0.755 E DumasMoore, 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 June 4, 2009

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 411:10 AM EDTEF0Leon, FL0.125$1.3 million
June 44:03 PM EDTEF0Glynn, GA2.175
June 43:35 PM PDTEF0Linn, OR1.5150$10,000
June 46:08 PM CDTEF0Oldham, TX1.0100
June 46:33 PM CDTEF0Randall, TX0.1100
June 46:40 PM CDTEF0Randall, TX0.8100
June 48:50 PM EDTEF0Worth, GA0.250$35,000

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.