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.

  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 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)ExpiredProductOffice
15:59 UTC08:27 UTCFlash Flood WatchFWD
21:56 UTC22:30 UTCTornado WarningFWD
22:36 UTC02:50 UTCTornado WatchFWD

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.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z 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 678 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 627 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z 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 29 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 208 km from the path. September 9, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2010-09-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 670 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 1063 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2010-09-09The 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 96 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:20 UTCTORNADOPost OakLamar, TXPOSSIBLE 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 84:18 AM CDTEF0Coryell, TX0.150
September 82:05 PM CDTEF1Bryan, OK0.1251
September 85:36 PM CDTEF1Ellis, TX9.9704$200,000
September 85:55 PM CDTEF0Falls, TX0.6115
September 86:10 PM CDTEF2Dallas, TX2.75161$750,000
September 86:20 PM CDTEF0Rockwall, TX0.7108$50,000
September 87:00 PM CDTEF0Carter, OK0.125$20,000
September 87:30 PM CDTEF0Cooke, TX0.050
September 88:15 PM CDTEF0Love, OK0.110

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.