Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2009

EF0 tornado, Bryarly, Texas, May 14, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Red River County on May 14, 2009, touching down at 3:15 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 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.

  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
May 14, 2009
Touchdown
3:15 AM CDT (08:15 UTC)
Lifted
3:16 AM CDT (08:16 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500
County
Red River County
Touchdown point
33.766, -94.914
Lift-off point
33.763, -94.906
Record number
0905140215-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed along a southward moving frontal boundary across southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas and northeast Texas. The frontal boundary encountered a moderately unstable airmass with the result being large hail, damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes.

Metal roofing material was removed from a barn, some of which landed in an adjacent tree. Additional roofing material was found in an open field, several hundred yards southeast of the barn. Prior to lifting, the tornado also snapped several trees on the edge of a thicket.

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

The warnings

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:21 UTC and running to 12:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:00 UTC00:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisorySHV
06:21 UTC12:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchSHV
06:37 UTC15:51 UTCFlash Flood WatchSHV
07:37 UTC08:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
08:28 UTC09:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
09:17 UTC13:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningSHV

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 06:07 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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. May 14, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2009-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1900 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 1477 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2009-05-14The 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 50 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
1900 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2793 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1477 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 179 km from the path. May 14, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2009-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1543 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 608 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2009-05-14The 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 -72 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1543 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1842 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
608 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-42 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Idabel (4O4), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
06:30 UTC73.464.4160° 7 kt1012.9
06:50 UTC73.464.4150° 6 kt1013.2
07:30 UTC71.664.4160° 8 kt1013.9
07:50 UTC71.664.4200° 3 kt1014.9
08:10 UTC71.664.4340° 12 kt1017.3VCTS
08:30 UTC62.659360° 14 kt261020VCTS
08:50 UTC62.65930° 8 kt1017.6TS
09:10 UTC62.660.880° 6 kt1018.3VCTS
09:30 UTC62.660.820° 3 kt1019TS
09:50 UTC62.660.8100° 5 kt1019.6
10:10 UTC62.660.8100° 7 kt1019.6

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

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 177 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:14 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
08:15 UTCTORNADO11 Ssw IdabelRed River, TXAN EF0 TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN ON A RANCH. METAL ROOFING MATERIAL WAS REMOVED FROM A BARN...LANDING IN AN ADJACENT TREE AND IN A FIELD SEVERAL HUNDRED YARDS AWAY. OTHER TREES WERE SNAPPED ALONG THE LEADING EDGE OF A
08:52 UTCTSTM WND DMG7 N De KalbBowie, TX3 LARGE TREES DOWNED AT FM 114 JUST OFF OF HWY 259. ANOTHER TREE DOWN JUST NORTH OF HWY 259 ON FM 2735.
08:54 UTCTSTM WND DMGN De KalbBowie, TXLARGE TREE BLOCKING CR 114 JUST OFF HWY 259 NORTH OF TOWN.
08:55 UTCTSTM WND DMGDe KalbBowie, TXLARGE TREE DOWN ON CR 3204 JUST OFF OF FM 992 THAT IS DOWN ON A POWERLINE. ANOTHER TREE DOWN ON CR 3206.
08:58 UTCTORNADO12 Nw New BostonBowie, TXEF0 TORNADO OCCURRED ABOUT 12 MILES NORTHWEST OF NEW BOSTON WITH A PATH LENGTH OF 3/4 MILE...AND A PATH WIDTH OF 75 YARDS. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF SEVERAL TREES SNAPPED OR UPROOTED AND MANY SMALL LIMBS BROKEN OFF.
08:59 UTCTSTM WND DMGN New BostonBowie, TXA FALLEN TREE DAMAGED A HOUSE ALONG MAGNOLIA STREET IN NEW BOSTON TX.
09:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG12 S ClarksvilleRed River, TXTREE DOWN ACROSS FM RD 1487
09:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 S AveryRed River, TXTREE DOWN ACROSS CR 4650

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 May 14, 2009

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 141:11 AM CDTEF1Saint Francois, MO0.6200
May 143:25 AM CDTEF2Gibson, IN10.3125$300,000
May 143:58 AM CDTEF0Bowie, TX1.275
May 144:20 AM CDTEF0Little River, AR2.4100
May 1410:45 AM CDTEF0Calcasieu Parish, LA0.05

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.