EF1 tornado, Linn Flat to Concord, Texas, November 8, 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

November 8, 2011

Touchdown

2:02 PM CST (20:02 UTC)

Lifted

2:26 PM CST (20:26 UTC)

On the ground

24 minutes

Path length

12.3 miles (19.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Nacogdoches and Rusk counties

Touchdown point

31.836, -94.770

Lift-off point

31.947, -94.605

Record number

1111081402-01

A potent upper level storm system moved out of the Texas Hill County and into the Southern Plains during the afternoon of November 11th. Deep layer shear and low level shear was significant enough for supercells and mesocyclones during the afternoon and evening hours across the region given the instability in place. Discrete storms developed ahead of a strong cold front and some of these storms produced damaging wind gusts, large hail and tornadoes.

The tornado touched down just east of Happy Valley along HWY. 817. It continued on an east-northeasterly path, causing sporadic tree damage along FM 950 and FM 3272 before crossing into southern Rusk County. Maximum winds were estimated at 90 mph.

This tornado is a continuation of the tornado that first touched down in northern Nacogdoches County, Texas. The tornado touched down just east of Happy Valley along HWY 817. It continued on an east-northeasterly path, causing sporadic tree damage along FM 950 and FM 3272 before lifting just west of US HWY. 259. The tornado touched down a second time east-southeast of Mount Enterprise along FM. 3198 near FM. 3191, causing severe tree damage in a wide swath that continued east-northeast to an area near the intersection of HWY. 84 and FM. 3191 before lifting. Maximum winds were estimated at 90 mph.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:43 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:51 UTC and running to 23:33 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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 Shreveport radar (KSHV), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:02 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

10 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.