Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2010

EF0 tornado, Bushland, Texas, April 20, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Potter County on April 20, 2010, touching down at 7:04 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
April 20, 2010
Touchdown
7:04 PM CDT (00:04 UTC)
Lifted
7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
1.1 miles (1.7 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Potter County
Touchdown point
35.180, -102.123
Lift-off point
35.189, -102.108
Record number
1004201804-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms moved across the southwest and south central Texas Panhandle during the evening hours producing large hail...damaging winds...and two tornadoes. Although no injuries were reported...the hail and winds caused damage to homes and crops.

A tornado survey was conducted on this tornado which occurred at 1804 CST three miles west of Bushland and just south of Interstate 40. The tornado remained over open country and no damage or injuries were reported directly from the tornado. The tornado was on the ground for approximately one mile with a maximum width of fifty yards. The tornado dissipated at approximately 1809 CST about two miles west northwest of Bushland.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:05 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA
00:22 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningAMA
00:48 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningAMA
01:01 UTC04:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryAMA
01:13 UTC02:00 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:30 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), 00:00Z

0.1 hours before the tornado, 38 km from the path. April 21, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2010-04-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 972 joules per kilogram, CIN -96, lifted condensation level 884 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2010-04-21The 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 253 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
972 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-96 J/kg
Surface CAPE
773 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
884 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
253 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
328 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.9 hours after it, 38 km from the path. April 21, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2010-04-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -224, lifted condensation level 1374 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2010-04-21The 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 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-224 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1374 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
153 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:03 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
22:38 UTCHAIL 0.75Boys RanchOldham, TX
00:04 UTCTORNADO3 W BushlandPotter, TXTORNADO SURVEY CONDUCTED. TORNADO WAS LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 1 MILE SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 40 AND REMAINED OVER OPEN COUNTRY AND LASTED APPROXIMATELY FIVE MINUTES. NO DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED.
00:04 UTCTORNADO5 W BushlandOldham, TXLOCATED APPROXIMATELY 1 MILE SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 40. PRELIMINARY END TIME IS ESTIMATED.
00:10 UTCHAIL 1.751 N BushlandPotter, TXSPOTTER ALSO CONFIRMED THE TORNADO REPORTED NEAR BUSHLAND
00:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Ne UmbargerRandall, TXNORTH FACING WINDOWS BLOWN OUT AND SIDING DAMAGED AT SEVERAL RESIDENCES JUST NORTHEAST OF UMBARGER.
00:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGUmbargerRandall, TXHOME WINDOWS BLOWN OUT IN UMBARGER
00:46 UTCHAIL 1.757 N UmbargerRandall, TX
00:47 UTCTORNADO3 Ne UmbargerRandall, TXBRIEF TOUCHDOWN REPORTED APPROXIMATELY 3 MILES NORTHEAST OF UMBARGER. PRELIMINARY POSITION PENDING STORM SURVEY.
00:48 UTCTSTM WND GST 683 Ne UmbargerRandall, TXSCHOOLNET REPORT FROM BRANDT FARMS
01:31 UTCTSTM WND GST 683 Ne UmbargerRandall, TXSCHOOLNET REPORT FROM BRANDT FARMS68

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 20, 2010

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 207:47 PM CDTEF0Randall, TX0.950

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.