Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2010

EF0 tornado, Benbrook Lake, Texas, September 7, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Tarrant County on September 7, 2010, touching down at 2:56 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
September 7, 2010
Touchdown
2:56 PM CDT (19:56 UTC)
Lifted
2:57 PM CDT (19:57 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Tarrant County
Touchdown point
32.628, -97.469
Lift-off point
32.628, -97.469
Record number
1009071356-01

What the Weather Service recorded

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine moved through the western portions of north Texas dropping several inches of water in some locations and producing 8 tornadoes. Significant flash flooding occurred during the late evening hours of September 7th through September 8th. Up to 12 inches of rain fell across the area with the highest totals along the Interstate 35 corridor. Numerous high water rescues and evacuations were conducted across the region. On September 8th, an EF2 tornado moved through the western city limits of Dallas, injuring one person. Just prior to the Dallas tornado, an EF1 tornado moved through Seagoville in the southeastern portions of Dallas County. Two fatalities occurred during the event due to the flooding.

A brief tornado was spotted over Benbrook Lake. No damage occurred with this tornado.

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

The warnings

5 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:51 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:00 UTC08:27 UTCFlash Flood WatchFWD
13:49 UTC16:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryFWD
19:51 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningFWD
20:17 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WatchFWD
20:26 UTC23:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryFWD
04:44 UTC08:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryFWD

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 16:11 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

7.9 hours before the tornado, 28 km from the path. September 7, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2010-09-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1740 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 531 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2010-09-07The 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 -27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
1740 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
999 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
531 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

4.1 hours after it, 28 km from the path. September 8, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2010-09-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 528 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 473 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2010-09-08The 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 139 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
528 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1171 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
473 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
269 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:55 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
19:56 UTCTORNADOBenbrookTarrant, TXSPOTTER REPORTS TORNADO OVER BENBROOK LAKE. NO DAMAGE REPORTED.

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 September 7, 2010

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 73:37 PM CDTEF0Lavaca, TX0.250
September 75:09 PM CDTEF0Hempstead, AR0.240

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.