EF2 tornado, Verhalen, Texas, May 23, 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

May 23, 2010

Touchdown

6:56 PM CDT (23:56 UTC)

Lifted

7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$24,000

County

Reeves County

Touchdown point

31.009, -103.435

Lift-off point

30.965, -103.392

Record number

1005231756-01

With persistent low level southeast flow in place across the area and a surface dryline in place from southeast New Mexico across portions of southwest Texas, isolated supercell thunderstorms developed across southern Reeves County and northwest Pecos County. For the second straight evening, these thunderstorms produced tornadoes across the area.

A spotter report from a NWS employee and a damage survey both determined that at approximately 1756 CST, a tornado developed about 11 miles southeast of Verhalen, TX. It then moved southeastward damaging a total of 12 powers poles. All but two of these poles were broken into 3 or 4 pieces each. The broken poles were indicative of EF-2 type damage. At 1802 CST, a Pecos County Sherriff���s Deputy took a photo of the tornado near the Pecos and Reeves County line. Finally, at 1806 CST the NWS employee captured the tornado in its dissipating stage.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:28 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:06 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.

Pecos (PEQ), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 157 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:57 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 2010 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.