Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2010

EF0 tornado, Stewart Hgts, Texas, June 8, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Harris County on June 8, 2010, touching down at 10:57 AM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 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
June 8, 2010
Touchdown
10:57 AM CDT (15:57 UTC)
Lifted
10:58 AM CDT (15:58 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$250,000
County
Harris County
Touchdown point
29.729, -94.943
Lift-off point
29.730, -94.941
Record number
1006080957-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A large complex of showers and thunderstorms raced northward out of the Gulf of Mexico associated with an upper level disturbance. This activity generated mostly strong winds across the area.

A weak tornado caused significant roof damage to Bay Harbor apartment complex in Baytown. Approximately 16 units were damaged with the loss of one roof. Another roof was partially lifted and thrown.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:13 UTC15:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningHGX
15:45 UTC16:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningHGX

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:56 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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

4.0 hours before the tornado, 173 km from the path. June 8, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2010-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2499 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 464 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2010-06-08The 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 55 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 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
2499 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
793 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
464 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

8.0 hours after it, 173 km from the path. June 9, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2010-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3592 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 632 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2010-06-09The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
3592 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4919 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
632 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
2.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:38 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
15:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 E BellaireHarris, TX30 FOOT HIGHWAY SIGN HAS 2 PANELS DAMAGED AT BELLAIRE BLVD AND STELLA LINK ROAD.
15:38 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDPearlandBrazoria, TXPOLICE OFFICER SIGHTED FUNNEL CLOUD.
15:41 UTCTSTM WND GST 46PearlandBrazoria, TX40 KNOT WIND GUST MEASURED AT KLVJ PEARLAND REGIONAL AIRPORT.
15:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 N HoustonHarris, TXTREE DOWN ON A HOME IN HOUSTON HEIGHTS
15:57 UTCTORNADO 0BaytownHarris, TXSIGNIFICANT ROOF DAMAGE TO BAY HARBOR APARTMENTS IN BAYTOWN.
16:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 455 Ese BacliffGmz335, TX39 KNOT WIND GUST AT EAGLE POINT.
16:07 UTCTSTM WND GST 55Bush-Intercontinental AHarris, TX48 KNOT WIND GUSTS AT KIAH REPORTED BY CWSU ZHU.
16:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGBaytownHarris, TXSIGNIFICANT ROOF DAMAGE TO BAY HARBOR APARTMENTS IN BAYTOWN.

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 June 8, 2010

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 84:55 PM CDTEF0Osage, KS0.430
June 85:39 PM CDTEF0Cass, MO2.120$10,000
June 85:55 PM CDTEF0Franklin, KS0.025
June 86:02 PM CDTEF0Story, IA0.420
June 86:34 PM CDTEF0Story, IA0.220
June 87:29 PM CDTEF0Coffey, KS0.025
June 87:47 PM CDTEF0Anderson, KS0.125$500
June 88:29 PM MDTEF0Elbert, CO0.150

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.