EF1 tornado, Washington, Vermont, May 9, 2009

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

May 9, 2009

Touchdown

5:04 PM EDT (21:04 UTC)

Lifted

5:05 PM EDT (21:05 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$125,000

County

Orange County

Touchdown point

44.109, -72.437

Lift-off point

44.107, -72.426

Record number

0905091504-01

On May 9th, a surface low and cold front moved from the Great Lakes across northern New York and Vermont, along a stationary boundary draped across the Adirondacks and central Vermont. This stationary boundary separated the cool, moist and stable air to the north, from the warm, moist and unstable air south. In addition a long-lived, strong mid-level shortwave and associated thunderstorm complex traveled across the Great Lakes and along this boundary across Vermont during the afternoon hours.||Severe thunderstorms and a developing squall line produced large hail up to an inch in diameter as well as damaging winds that knocked down trees and power lines to portions of central Vermont, especially the Middlebury vicinity. In addition, an EF1 tornado developed and briefly touched down in advance of the squall line in the town of Washington (Orange county). Some structural damage occurred to an apartment roof, school awning and destroyed a 60 foot hoop barn made of fabric and steel tubing.

A brief EF1 tornado touched down in the town of Washington that snapped and uprooted trees, partially ripped off roof from apartment building, damaged school awning and destroyed steel truss and fabric cow barn.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:44 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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.

Barre-Montpelier (MPV), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Burlington radar (KCXX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:04 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 2009 tornado in VermontEvery tornado in Vermont since 1950Warnings in force in Vermont 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.