EF2 tornado, Sundown to Coble, Texas, June 19, 2013

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 19, 2013

Touchdown

5:32 PM CDT (22:32 UTC)

Lifted

5:52 PM CDT (22:52 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

5.2 miles (8.4 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Hockley County

Touchdown point

33.480, -102.561

Lift-off point

33.555, -102.548

Record number

1306191632-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LUB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Mesquite tree limbs broken. Limbs close to ground.
• oil field electrical/telem equip.
• Two fiberglass oil field tank batteries damaged. Top sheared off.
• Building moved off foundation. Back wall bowed outward at door. Windows in tact.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

After the morning complex of storms and associated flash flooding northeast of the South Plains, an outflow boundary from these storms surged west onto the Caprock ahead of strong easterly winds and widespread blowing dust. This dust became thick enough to reduce visibilities occasionally below 1/4 mile in some areas. By mid-afternoon, a lone supercell storm developed along this boundary in southeast Cochran County and later produced a 20-minute EF-2 tornado in southwest Hockley County. Although this tornado remained over mostly undeveloped land, some oil field equipment, metal buildings, and power poles were heavily damaged or destroyed. The parent supercell also produced very large hail slightly larger than three inches in diameter that damaged some homes and vehicles. Farther west, scattered storms exited east-central New Mexico and produced a few instances of sub-severe wind gusts in Parmer and Bailey Counties along with marginally severe hail near Muleshoe. As these storms continued east and moved into more stable air behind the outflow boundary, they quickly weakened but still managed to generate locally heavy rainfall.

A supercell thunderstorm spawned an EF-2 tornado in far southwest Hockley County resulting in damage to oil field equipment, outbuildings, power poles, and storage tanks. Although the parent storm moved very slowly east throughout the tornado's life, a strong rear flank downdraft and occluding mesocyclone caused the tornado to veer sharply northward early in its life. This tornado began about 4 miles west-northwest of Sundown and moved northward for just over 5 miles in length before ending about 4.2 miles southeast of Whiteface. Photos and video from a storm chaser captured the evolution of this tornado. The tornado began as a compact debris cloud that became weak and diffuse just minutes before a narrow, fully condensed tornado emerged within wrapping rain curtains. At this point, a satellite funnel was observed along the periphery of the tornado, but this funnel is not believed to have become tornadic. After being largely obscured in rain for nearly five minutes, the tornado re-emerged as a fully condensed cone shape just before crossing FM Road 1585 and finally dissipating north of the road. The end time of the tornado was approximated from NWS Lubbock radar data. A NWS storm survey discovered scattered damage throughout portions of the tornado's track - the most intense of which was rated EF-2 over the southern portion of its path. Specifically, in excess of one dozen power poles were snapped at their base and a free-standing metal tower at a well site was bent. In a surrounding field, a wide swath of mesquite trees with branches of 1 to 3 inches in diameter were sheared off. This damage suggested maximum wind speeds were likely around 115 mph. Farther north at the abandoned Oxy facility located on FM 1585 west of Sampson Post Road, a large portion of a metal roof was removed and a nearby metal building was shifted off its foundation. Also, a large tree on the property was uprooted. This portion of damage was rated EF-0. North of the Oxy facility, EF-0 damage was noted to two fiberglass tank batteries with the top of one completely removed. The NWS in Lubbock would like to thank Hockley County emergency management for assisting with this storm survey.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:31 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:31 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 Lubbock radar (KLBB), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:32 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 2013 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.