EF2 tornado, Copperas Cove, Texas, June 9, 2019

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 9, 2019

Touchdown

5:24 PM CDT (22:24 UTC)

Lifted

5:28 PM CDT (22:28 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.5 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Coryell County

Touchdown point

31.138, -97.944

Lift-off point

31.117, -97.935

Record number

1906091624-01

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

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

Another complex of storms moved south from Oklahoma into North Texas, producing widespread wind damage from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex southward through a good portion of the region during the afternoon of Sunday June 9. The strong winds resulted in a construction crane collapse in Dallas that killed one person. In addition, an EF-2 tornado occurred in far southern Coryell County.

An isolated supercell thunderstorm produced an EF-2 tornado near the border separating extreme southern Coryell County from extreme eastern Lampasas County, Texas. Officials reported that approximately 196 residences in the City of Copperas Cove were impacted to varying degrees. This tornado formed near the intersection of Grimes Crossing Road and Big Divide Road in far western Copperas Cove. At this intersection, two frame-built residences were initially impacted. Both residences had significant roof and exterior wall damage, and one home had the majority of its roof decking completely removed. The damage associated with this latter structure was consistent with EF-2 intensity tornado damage, with peak winds of approximately 115 mph. The other heavily impacted residence had damage consistent with EF-1 intensity tornadic winds, with peak winds of 100-105 mph. ||The tornado tracked south-southeastward, producing significant shingle, tree and ancillary structural damage to numerous residences in the neighborhoods straddling Big Divide Road. Most of this damage was due to EF-0 intensity winds, but several homes along the remainder of the path had portions of their wooden roof decking or sheet metal roof cladding removed. Several large trees were also uprooted along the path. These damage indicators were consistent with EF-1 intensity damage. In the latter stages of its life cycle, the tornado's width contracted to around 100 yards and wind intensities diminished. The tornado ultimately moved up a wooded hillside and dissipated near the intersection of Veterans Avenue and Stewart Street.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:46 UTC and running to 00:06 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:47 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 Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:22 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 2019 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.