Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2024
EF1 tornado, (P07)Sanderson, Texas, June 2, 2024
This EF1 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Terrell County on June 2, 2024, touching down at 7:20 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- June 2, 2024
- Touchdown
- 7:20 PM CDT (00:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:22 PM CDT (00:22 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Terrell County
- Touchdown point
- 30.142, -102.400
- Lift-off point
- 30.139, -102.395
- Record number
- 2406021820-01
The damage survey
15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MAF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.
- Where damaged vegetation begins.
- House blown off original location
- Minimum weight 4650lbs, north edge of width
- Center of path, vegetation convergence
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Troughing across the western CONUS with leading shortwave impulses continued to aid in developing severe thunderstorms around the higher terrain of west Texas. Several intense supercells produced very large hail and tornadoes near the Stockton Plateau region, including a damaging tornado that impacted the town of Sanderson.
The same supercell thunderstorm that caused the first tornado would quickly produce another smaller tornado near the center of Sanderson a short time later. This tornado was photographed as a skinny rope tornado moving roughly parallel to Oak Street. This tornado would snap power poles, damage roofs, and destroy a small wooden building before lifting. This short-lived tornado was rated an EF-1 with peak winds estimated to have been 110 MPH. Property damage cost is an estimation.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
16 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:04 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:00 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:00 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | MAF |
| 23:39 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF |
| 23:39 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | MAF |
| 00:04 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | MAF |
| 00:44 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF |
| 00:57 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF |
| 01:27 UTC | 01:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF |
| 01:29 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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 surface observations
Dryden (6R6), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:51 UTC | 90 | 74 | 100° 13 kt | 1008.1 | ||
| 23:51 UTC | 87 | 73 | 100° 15 kt | 21 | 1007.5 | |
| 00:51 UTC | 80 | 74 | 320° 25 kt | 48 | 1010.2 | |
| 01:00 UTC | 78 | 76 | 360° 12 kt | 30 | 1009.8 | |
| 01:51 UTC | 75 | 5 kt | 1010.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 201 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:18 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:14 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Wnw Sanderson | Terrell, TX | Photos showed a tornado formed very near Sanderson along a ridge northwest of town. This tornado immediately entered a neighborhood west of US Highway 285 in Sanderson. Damage in this neighborhood included damage to wall |
| 00:15 UTC | TORNADO | Sanderson | Terrell, TX | Tornado with damage to buildings and power lines reported in Sanderson. |
| 00:20 UTC | TORNADO | Sanderson | Terrell, TX | The same supercell thunderstorm that caused the first tornado would quickly prouce another smaller tornado near the center of Sanderson a short time later. This tornado was photographed as a skinny rope tornado moving ro |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 2, 2024
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2 | 2:39 PM CDT | Unrated | Logan, ND | 0.6 | 50 | |||
| June 2 | 2:48 PM CDT | Unrated | Stutsman, ND | 1.5 | 250 | |||
| June 2 | 3:16 PM MDT | EF2 | Meade, SD | 4.1 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| June 2 | 6:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Renville, MN | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| June 2 | 7:11 PM CDT | EF0 | Hutchinson, TX | 1.2 | 25 | $700 | ||
| June 2 | 7:14 PM CDT | EF3 | Terrell, TX | 0.9 | 250 | 12 | $400,000 | |
| June 2 | 7:16 PM CDT | EF0 | Hutchinson, TX | 0.9 | 75 | $500 | ||
| June 2 | 7:47 PM CDT | Unrated | Ransom, ND | 0.0 | 50 | |||
| June 2 | 7:57 PM CDT | Unrated | Briscoe, TX | 9.3 | 100 | |||
| June 2 | 8:10 PM CDT | Unrated | Briscoe, TX | 8.7 | 100 |
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.