EF0 tornado, Spring Hill to Cass, Texas, April 23, 2010

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

April 23, 2010

Touchdown

7:34 PM CDT (00:34 UTC)

Lifted

7:41 PM CDT (00:41 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cass County

Touchdown point

33.081, -94.246

Lift-off point

33.097, -94.165

Record number

1004231834-01

A disturbance moving ahead of a strong upper level storm system generated scattered thunderstorms on the 23rd. Some storms reached severe limits producing large hail. A few supercells showed some rotation...and tornadoes were reported across portions of northeast Texas during the evening hours of April 23rd and the early morning hours of April 24th.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Cass County, Texas and concluded that storm damage was the result of an EF0 tornado. The tornado touched down at around 7:34 PM CDT, about five miles west-southwest of Atlanta, along Highway 59, where it damaged several large trees. The tornado proceeded east-northeast where it snapped or uprooted several more trees. The tornado lifted at 7:41 PM CDT near FM 251, about one mile south of Atlanta. Maximum winds are estimated at 60-70 mph.

An EF0 tornado touched down on the west side of Queen City at around 7:41 PM CDT, about one mile west of Queen City, along Highway 96, where it uprooted a large tree. The tornado proceeded into Queen City where it caused damage to several large tree limbs and branches and caused moderate damage to the roof of a building. This tornado then exited Cass County, Texas and moved into Miller County, Arkansas.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:30 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:46 UTC and running to 06:50 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Texarkana Regional/Webb (TXK), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:33 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 2010 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.