EF0 tornado, Price to Minden, Texas, April 11, 2012

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 11, 2012

Touchdown

3:22 PM CDT (20:22 UTC)

Lifted

3:24 PM CDT (20:24 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Rusk County

Touchdown point

31.992, -94.745

Lift-off point

31.980, -94.736

Record number

1204111422-01

Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon along an old frontal boundary that spawned severe thunderstorms on April 10th. These thunderstorms developed in a moderately unstable environment and a strong low level shear environment. As a result, a few of these storms produced weak tornadoes across Rusk County, Texas. Otherwise these storms also produced large hail as they moved southeast.

An EF0 tornado first touched down near the intersection of County Road 471 and 468 where a tree was snapped. The tornado continued southeast crossing CR. 468 where several trees were snapped on both sided of the road. Some of the trees fell across 468 and on the powerlines nearby. The tornado lifted as it crossed Hwy. 79, seven miles southwest of Henderson, Texas where 2 trees were snapped on the north side of Hwy. 79.

An EF0 tornado first touched down south of FM. 1798 along County Road 3146 where a couple of trees were snapped and uprooted. The EF0 tornado continued southeast snapping large branches along CR. 3146 before lifting east of CR. 3146 and north of CR. 3145.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:50 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 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 19:58 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), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:24 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 2012 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.