Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2010
EF0 tornado, Novice to Pin Hook, Texas, September 8, 2010
From Novice to Pin Hook, this EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Lamar County on September 8, 2010, touching down at 5:20 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 8, 2010
- Touchdown
- 5:20 PM CDT (22:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:23 PM CDT (22:23 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.9 miles (3.1 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Lamar County
- Touchdown point
- 33.802, -95.353
- Lift-off point
- 33.803, -95.320
- Record number
- 1009081620-01
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.
An EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 75 mph touched down in far northeastern Lamar County. The tornado touched down near FM 195 and CR 46650, and then moved due east, crossing FM 195. Tree damage was noted early in the track. Near the end of the track, the tornado damaged a few barns; causing them to lose part of their roofs. Near this same location, on CR 45600, a manufactured home was damaged and lost part of its roof.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
24 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:56 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:59 UTC | 08:27 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | FWD |
| 21:56 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
| 22:36 UTC | 02:50 UTC | Tornado Watch | FWD |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 21:55 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.
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z
10.3 hours before the tornado, 208 km from the path. September 8, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 678 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 453 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 627 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 29 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 82 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z
1.7 hours after it, 208 km from the path. September 9, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 670 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -55 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2085 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1063 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 96 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 132 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 2.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
The radar
The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 188 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:18 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:20 UTC | TORNADO | Post Oak | Lamar, TX | POSSIBLE TORNADO NORTHEAST OF BLOSSOM NEAR POST OAK. 2 BARNS DAMAGED. 1 DESTROYED. HOMES WITH ROOF DAMAGE NEAR POST OAK. |
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 8, 2010
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 8 | 4:18 AM CDT | EF0 | Coryell, TX | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| September 8 | 2:05 PM CDT | EF1 | Bryan, OK | 0.1 | 25 | 1 | ||
| September 8 | 5:36 PM CDT | EF1 | Ellis, TX | 9.9 | 704 | $200,000 | ||
| September 8 | 5:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Falls, TX | 0.6 | 115 | |||
| September 8 | 6:10 PM CDT | EF2 | Dallas, TX | 2.7 | 516 | 1 | $750,000 | |
| September 8 | 6:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Rockwall, TX | 0.7 | 108 | $50,000 | ||
| September 8 | 7:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Carter, OK | 0.1 | 25 | $20,000 | ||
| September 8 | 7:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Cooke, TX | 0.0 | 50 | |||
| September 8 | 8:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Love, OK | 0.1 | 10 |
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.