Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2011

EF1 tornado, Kurth Lake to Stewart, Texas, February 1, 2011

From Kurth Lake to Stewart, this EF1 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Rusk County on February 1, 2011, touching down at 6:10 AM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $60,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
February 1, 2011
Touchdown
6:10 AM CST (12:10 UTC)
Lifted
6:11 AM CST (12:11 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$60,000
County
Rusk County
Touchdown point
32.291, -94.659
Lift-off point
32.292, -94.648
Record number
1102010610-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A vigorous upper level trough exited western Texas and moved into the Four State Region of Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas and Northern Louisiana during the early morning hours of February 1st. Thunderstorms erupted during the predawn hours and the eventual mode of convection took the shape of a squall line. Strong damaging wind gusts were the primary result...however...a couple of weak tornadoes were also reported across the region. In the wake of the squall line...a very strong cold front came through the region.

A brick home had half of its roof torn off. A neighboring home had its roof damage from debris from the first home. A shed and chicken coop was completely destroyed. Numerous trees were snapped and or uprooted along the path which started along CR 2126 and crossed FM 782 before lifting. Maximum winds were 90-100 mph.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:00 UTC10:41 UTCLake Wind AdvisorySHV
20:00 UTC15:23 UTCWind Chill AdvisorySHV
03:35 UTC15:00 UTCHard Freeze WarningSHV
04:00 UTC03:35 UTCFreeze WarningSHV

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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:54 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

0.2 hours before the tornado, 87 km from the path. February 1, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2011-02-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 43 joules per kilogram, CIN -133, lifted condensation level 511 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2011-02-01The 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 540 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 81 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
43 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-133 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
511 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
81 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
540 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
654 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

11.8 hours after it, 87 km from the path. February 2, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2011-02-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -108536, lifted condensation level 820 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2011-02-02The 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 -191 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 95 knots.1939587897117136156175Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-108536 J/kg
Surface CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
820 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
95 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-191 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-38 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
-0.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:11 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
12:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 W HendersonRusk, TXWIND DAMAGE ON HWY 64 JUST WEST OF HENDERSON TEXAS. WINDS OF 80-90 MPH KNOCKED DOWN TREES AND POWERLINES AND TOOK THE ROOF OFF A MOBILE HOME.
12:06 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N HendersonRusk, TX2 HOMES DAMAGED IN OAK HILL NORTH OF HENDERSON
12:10 UTCTORNADOOak HillRusk, TXAN EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AT OAK HILL TEXAS. DAMAGE PATH WAS 1/2 MILE LONG AND 100 YARDS WIDE. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF 2 HOMES DAMAGED...WITH ABOUT 1/2 OF THE ROOF TORN OFF ONE OF THE HOMES.
12:48 UTCTSTM WND DMGMarshallHarrison, TXTREES DOWN ACROSS HARRISON COUNTY ON HWY 59

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of February 1, 2011

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 18:24 AM CSTEF0Sabine Parish, LA6.050$1,000
February 18:06 PM CSTEF0Henry, AL1.640$150,000

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.