EF1 tornado, Cash to Wieland, Texas, April 11, 2011

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 11, 2011

Touchdown

2:34 AM CDT (07:34 UTC)

Lifted

2:48 AM CDT (07:48 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

6.5 miles (10.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Hunt County

Touchdown point

32.989, -96.113

Lift-off point

33.036, -96.012

Record number

1104110134-01

A strong upper level low pressure system over the southern Rockies aided in the late evening development of severe thunderstorms along a dryline across north central and central Texas. One of these storms was a strong linear mesoscale convective system which produced a swath of wind damage from Goldthwaite northeast into southern portions of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and continued northeast to near Sulphur Springs. A swath of wind damage consistent with 70 to 80 mph winds was associated with this storm. Other supercell thunderstorms in the area produced brief tornadoes and large hail.

A tornado touched down near the town of Cash and then moved northeast producing a non-continuous path of damage over 6 miles long. Up to 8 homes, a pipe manufacturing plant and two metal buildings were damaged in Cash. In addition, four U-haul trailers were blown across the highway in Cash. As the tornado continued northeast out of Cash, it damaged several more homes with most of them sustaining minor roof damage. However, one home sustained significant damage to the roof and second story near FM 1564 and FM 3519. Just before the tornado lifted, it damaged 5 more mobile homes, one of which was destroyed, and also significantly damaged a single family residence near the intersection of FM 1564 and Highway 69. This tornado has been rated an EF-1 with estimated maximum wind speeds of 100 to 110 mph.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:13 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:48 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 06:53 UTC and running to 08:28 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:35 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 2011 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.