EF2 tornado, Larue to Poynor, Texas, January 20, 2010

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

January 20, 2010

Touchdown

6:20 PM CST (00:20 UTC)

Lifted

6:22 PM CST (00:22 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Henderson County

Touchdown point

32.065, -95.690

Lift-off point

32.073, -95.678

Record number

1001201820-01

Severe storms developed in an area of strong low-level lift ahead of an approaching upper level low pressure system and a slowly advancing cold front. Severe weather reports were limited to east of Interstate 35, and five tornadoes were confirmed in Henderson, Van Zandt, and Hopkins counties. Two tornadoes were rated EF-2s, one was rated an EF-1, and the remaining two were EF-0s. The Van Zandt County tornado was a long track tornado that traveled over 15 miles.

A NWS Storm Survey concluded a tornado touched down about 3 miles south of the town of Larue and tracked northeast for about a mile. A total of seven homes were damaged, and the exterior walls collapsed on some structures. The Larue Church of Christ suffered extensive damage. This tornado was rated an EF-2 with estimated maximum winds around 130 mph.

A NWS Storm Survey concluded that an EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph touched down near Poyner and tracked 3 miles to the northeast toward Coffee City. A mobile home was dislodged and a wood framed home had significant damage. Tree damage was also noted along a three mile path with an average width of 100 yards.

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

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:59 UTC and running to 02:06 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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.

Palestine (PSN), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 162 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:20 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

13 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.