EF0 tornado, Matinburg to Leesburg, Texas, May 2, 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

May 2, 2009

Touchdown

8:56 PM CDT (01:56 UTC)

Lifted

8:59 PM CDT (01:59 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Camp County

Touchdown point

32.935, -95.079

Lift-off point

32.961, -95.067

Record number

0905021956-01

A very unstable airmass developed across the four state region during the afternoon hours of May 2nd. A weak cold front had moved southward during the morning hours into southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas and had stalled. A weak shortwave moved into the Texas Hill County and produced enough lift...along with the development of a strong low level jet...for strong to severe thunderstorms to erupt across the region. The storms initially developed as supercells...producing large hail and isolated tornadoes but then evolved into a squall line. Strong straight line winds accompanied the squall line with winds in excess of 70 mph reported with some storms. There were also isolated tornadoes reported within the squall line itself. Damage was extensive across the region but overnight...the repeated training of storms resulted in a widespread flash flooding event. Numerous counties and parishes were flooded with rainfall amounts in excess of 6 inches in a 12 hour period common. By the time the event ended...there were five different line echo wave patterns that developed across the four state region the afternoon of May 2nd through the morning hours of May 3rd.

Several trees were uprooted or snapped along County Road 3510 and near County Road 3322. No structural damage was noted.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:35 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:06 UTC and running to 04:43 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 01:16 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.

Mount Pleasant Airport (OSA), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:57 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.