Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2019

EF0 tornado, Liberty Hill, Texas, June 9, 2019

Name: EF0 tornado, Liberty Hill, Texas, June 9, 2019
Start: 2019-06-09T23:34:00.000Z
End: 2019-06-09T23:35:00.000Z
Location: Liberty Hill, Texas

This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Williamson County on June 9, 2019, touching down at 6:34 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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.

EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: EF0
Date: June 9, 2019
Touchdown: 6:34 PM CDT (23:34 UTC)
Lifted: 6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)
On the ground: 1 minutes
Path length: 0.7 miles (1.2 km)
Path width: 50 yards (46 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $5,000
County: Williamson County
Touchdown point: 30.629, -98.033
Lift-off point: 30.620, -98.040
Record number: 1906091734-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed along a cold front that moved through the region. These storms formed in an unstable airmass with high CAPE and steep mid-level lapse rates leading to large hail and widespread damaging wind gusts many of which were estimated to be over 70 mph.

A small tornado touched down near County Road 287 southwest of Liberty Hill. Numerous trees were damaged in the three quarters of a mile path. Winds are estimated to have been near 75 mph.

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

The warnings

9 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:25 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:47 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
19:47 UTC	03:00 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	EWX
22:30 UTC	23:15 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	EWX
22:38 UTC	23:30 UTC	Tornado Warning	EWX
23:11 UTC	00:15 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	EWX
23:25 UTC	00:00 UTC	Tornado Warning	EWX
23:27 UTC	23:54 UTC	Tornado Warning	EWX
00:00 UTC	01:00 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	EWX

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 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 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 255 km from the path. June 9, 2019.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 464 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -473 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 840 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1273 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 234 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1
0-3 km lapse rate: 3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 255 km from the path. June 10, 2019.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 17 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -575 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 637 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1892 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 32 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: -0.3
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:33 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)	Report	Where	County	Remark
22:21 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	6 Wsw Copperas Cove	Lampasas, TX	DELAYED REPORT: DOWNED TREES AND ROOFS OF BARNS DAMAGED.
22:24 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 E Lampasas	Lampasas, TX	DELAYED REPORT: TREE FELL ON A HOUSE MULTIPLE POWER LINES DOWN IN EASTERN LAMPASAS.
22:24 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Copperas Cove	Coryell, TX	STORM DAMAGE TO HOMES ON BIG DIVIDE ROAD JUST WEST OF COPPERAS COVE WITH A COUPLE OF HOMES UNINHABITABLE. POSSIBLE TORNADO.
22:24 UTC	TORNADO	3 Wnw Copperas Cove	Coryell, TX	NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM DETERMINED THAT AN EF-2 TORNADO OCCURRED ON THE BORDER OF EXTREME SOUTHERN CORYELL COUNTY AND EXTREME EASTERN LAMPASAS COUNTY. THE TORNADO TRACKED SOUTH-SOUTHEASTWARD AND PRODUCED SIGNIFICANT SHINGL
22:25 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 Wsw Copperas Cove	Lampasas, TX	DELAYED REPORT: TREES DOWN NEAR COPPERAS COVE IN EASTERN LAMPASAS COUNTY.
22:28 UTC	TORNADO	2 Nnw Copperas Cove	Coryell, TX	TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A BRIEF TORNADO JUST NORTHWEST OF COPPERAS COVE.
22:43 UTC	HAIL 1.5	Kempner	Lampasas, TX	DELAYED REPORT...SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT OF PING PONG BALL SIZED HAIL NEAR KEMPNER. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR.
22:50 UTC	TSTM WND GST 78	6 Wnw Buchanan Dam	Llano, TX	SPOTTER MEASURED PEAK GUST OF 78 MPH WITH NUMEROUS TREES KNOCKED DOWN.
23:16 UTC	HAIL 1.75	Granger	Williamson, TX
23:18 UTC	HAIL 2	4 Nne Serenada	Williamson, TX	LARGE HAIL AND ALSO REPORTS OF LARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN.
23:34 UTC	TORNADO	7 Wsw Liberty Hill	Williamson, TX	BASED ON EYEWITNESS REPORTS AND TREE DAMAGE PICTURES SENT INTO THE OFFICE.
23:48 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Spicewood	Burnet, TX	MULTIPLE LARGE LIMBS BLOWN OFF TREES.
00:07 UTC	TSTM WND GST 50	3 Ne Manor	Travis, TX	.
00:07 UTC	TSTM WND GST 50	3 Ne Manor	Travis, TX
00:10 UTC	TSTM WND GST 81	1 E Manor	Travis, TX
00:12 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 Wsw Jollyville	Williamson, TX	LARGE TREE LIMBS KNOCKED DOWN.
00:20 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 Ese Leander	Williamson, TX	LARGE TREE LIMB KNOCKED DOWN.
00:21 UTC	TSTM WND GST 70	Mansfield Dam	Travis, TX
00:22 UTC	TSTM WND GST 70	3 Ene Manor	Travis, TX	NEAR TOWER LANE AND BOIS D ARC ROAD.
00:37 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	6 N Austin	Travis, TX	LARGE TREE DOWN BLOCKING OHLEN ROAD.
00:42 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Austin	Travis, TX	TREE DOWN ON 15TH STREET NEAR RED RIVER ST. THAT IS BLOCKING TWO LANES.
00:53 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 Ne Jonestown	Travis, TX	3 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN AND ROOF DAMAGE.
00:56 UTC	TSTM WND GST 70	1 Ene San Leanna	Travis, TX	REPORTED THROUGH SPOTTERNETWORK.
00:57 UTC	FLASH FLOOD	4 W Sunset Valley	Travis, TX	FLOODED ROAD AT OLD BEE CAVES ROAD AND WILLIAMSON CREEK SEEN ON ATXFLOODS CAMERA.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2019 tornado in Texas Every tornado in Texas since 1950 Warnings in force in Texas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 9, 2019

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 9	3:53 PM CDT	Unrated	Buchanan, IA	7.3	10
June 9	4:24 PM CDT	Unrated	Linn, IA	6.4	10
June 9	5:14 PM CDT	Unrated	Jones, IA	1.1	10
June 9	5:24 PM CDT	EF2	Coryell, TX	1.6	500	$500,000

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.