EF0 tornado, Needmore to Baileyboro, Texas, April 26, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 26, 2011

Touchdown

1:40 PM CDT (18:40 UTC)

Lifted

1:44 PM CDT (18:44 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bailey County

Touchdown point

34.030, -102.800

Lift-off point

34.030, -102.783

Record number

1104261240-01

The second in a series of potent upper air storm systems transited the Southern Plains on the 26th. Isolated convective shower and thunderstorms developed in advance of the system during the midday and early afternoon hours, as cold mid level temperatures overspread the region and steepened lapse rates. One of these storms, beneath the system's cold pool aloft, stretched a pre-existing circulation sufficiently to result in a weak non-mesocyclonic tornado west of Needmore (Bailey County) between 12:40 CST and 12:44 CST. Convection became more vigorous as it progressed east produced quarter size hail over northern Motley County shortly after 14:00 CST.||As subsidence overspread the region in the wake of the passing system, strong westerly winds impacted portions of the extreme southwestern Panhandle and the western South Plains. High winds were observed by the Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet and the KVII-TV Schoolnet across Bailey, Castro and Parmer Counties. ||A list of observed severe wind gusts follows: 59 mph at Friona (Parmer County) and 59 mph at Lazbuddie (Castro County).||A list of high sustained winds follows: 40 mph at Muleshoe (Bailey County), 41 mph at Dimmitt (Castro County), 41 mph at Hart (Castro County) and 43 mph at Friona|(Parmer County).||The strong winds were accompanied by critical fire weather and promoted the ignition and spread of two significant wildfires within ambient drought-stricken fuels. A fire that spread to over 500 acres north of Petersburg (Hale County) destroyed four structures at a homestead and a tractor. A second 3,000 acre fire west of Happy (Swisher County) destroyed two structures and caused evacuations of the town. No injuries were reported, however, total economic losses were estimated at $350,000.

The broadcast media relayed photographs of a non-mesocyclonic tornado which developed beneath a shallow convective cell between 12:40 CST and 12:44 CST on the 26th. Per post-event radar and surface analysis, the tornado occurred during the updraft phase of a small convective shower, apparently due to the vertical stretching of pre-existing low level vorticity. The low-level environment was characterized by very dry air with surface temperatures in the 70s (F) and dewpoints in the 10s (F). A pre-existing surface boundary was not identified, and winds were uniform from a westerly direction.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 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.

Clovis Muni (CVN), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:42 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

58 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.