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Storm Events Database
Event Details
| Event | Tornado |
| -- Scale | EF0 |
| -- Length | 0.5 Miles |
| -- Width | 200 Yards |
| State | TEXAS |
| County/Area | CROSBY |
| WFO | LUB |
| Begin Date | 04/16/2009 17:45:00 CST-6 |
| Begin Range | 2 |
| Begin Azimuth | SW |
| Begin Location | RALLS |
| Begin Lat/Lon | 33.66/-101.4 |
| End Date | 04/16/2009 17:46:00 CST-6 |
| End Range | 2 |
| End Azimuth | SW |
| End Location | RALLS |
| End Lat/Lon | 33.66/-101.4 |
| Deaths Direct/Indirect | 0/0 (fatality details below, when available...) |
| Injuries Direct/Indirect | 0/0 |
| Property Damage | 0.00K |
| Crop Damage | 0.00K |
| Episode Narrative | A severe weather outbreak occurred over west Texas during the afternoon and evening hours of the 16th and resulted in significant public impacts. Despite the occurrence of thirteen tornadoes across the South Plains region, most of the damage resulted from destructive hail and heavy rainfall. Thunderstorms first developed over the northern South Plains around 13:00 CST. These early afternoon storms initiated as supercells, but transitioned into a small-scale convective complex that produced extensive amounts of large hail and heavy rainfall. As the storms trained over the Interstate 27 corridor in Swisher County, a significant hail accumulation and flood event resulted in some 50 vehicles becoming stalled and a prolonged closure of the highway through the overnight hours. Additional storms developed during the mid to late afternoon hours over the central South Plains. Two supercell thunderstorms impacted Lubbock County. One of these storms produced a destructive hail swath through the city of Lubbock damaging some 3,000 homes and more than 1,100 vehicles totaling an estimated $40 million in damages. Meanwhile a second supercell storm over eastern Lubbock County produced a family of weak tornadoes along U.S. Highway 82 east of Idalou. Other supercell storms impacted portions of Garza and Kent Counties during the late afternoon and early evening hours. These storms additionally produced damaging hail and brief tornadoes. By late evening, storm modes transitioned toward broken convective complexes and multicell structures. An unstable low-level environment, however, continued to be characterized by an increasingly enhanced veering of the wind fields. Thus, despite a transition toward less discrete storm cells, the threat for tornadoes remained. Multiple small scale low-level circulations developed within the evolving convective complexes, and these circulations proved to be tornadic. An EF-1 tornado damaged five structures and downed power poles as it tracked nearly eight miles across northwestern Lubbock County and southwestern Hale County around 20:00 CST. Two additional EF-1 tornadoes impacted the Abernathy (Hale County) and Roosevelt (Lubbock County) areas through the 21:00 CST hour. Meanwhile, similar tornadic circulations developed within other storm complexes over portions of Dickens, Kent, and King Counties. Multiple reports of tornadoes were received from rural areas around the Spur, Girard, and Guthrie vicinities but no damages resulted. In all, an estimated $41.3 million in damages and three injuries resulted from severe weather across the South Plains region of west Texas on the 16th. |
| Event Narrative | The supercell thunderstorm that produced a destructive swath of damaging hail over Lubbock (Lubbock County) produced a brief tornado near Ralls as it tracked northeastward over northern Crosby County. A number of veteran storm chasers observed a brief tornado just southwest of Ralls at 17:45 CST. The tornado appeared as a broad multiple-vortex spin-up of dust, but resulted in no damage as it remained in open fields. |
All events for this episode:
| Location | County/Zone | St. | Date | Time | T.Z. | Type | Mag | Dth | Inj | PrD | CrD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totals: | 0 | 3 | 41.372M | 0.00K | |||||||
| KRESS | SWISHER CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 12:50 | CST-6 | Flood | 0 | 0 | 500.00K | 0.00K | |
| KRESS | SWISHER CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 13:00 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.25 in. | 0 | 0 | 500.00K | 0.00K |
| WILSON | LYNN CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 14:35 | CST-6 | Hail | 0.88 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| AMHERST | LAMB CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 14:35 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.00 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| KRESS | SWISHER CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 14:44 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| BROADVIEW | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 14:45 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.00 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| HART | CASTRO CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 15:14 | CST-6 | Hail | 0.88 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| SLIDE | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 15:17 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.75 in. | 0 | 0 | 5.000M | 0.00K |
| DOUD | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 15:39 | CST-6 | Hail | 2.00 in. | 0 | 0 | 15.000M | 0.00K |
| DOUD | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 15:40 | CST-6 | Hail | 2.50 in. | 0 | 3 | 20.000M | 0.00K |
| EDMONSON | HALE CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 16:00 | CST-6 | Hail | 0.75 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| ACUFF | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 16:02 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| IDALOU | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 16:03 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00K | 0.00K |
| LUBBOCK | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 16:15 | CST-6 | Heavy Rain | 0 | 0 | 15.00K | 0.00K | |
| POST | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 16:18 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.00 in. | 0 | 0 | 50.00K | 0.00K |
| POST | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 16:20 | CST-6 | Heavy Rain | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K | |
| EDMONSON | HALE CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 16:35 | CST-6 | Heavy Rain | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K | |
| FLOYDADA | FLOYD CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:02 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.00 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| JUSTICEBURG | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:05 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.50 in. | 0 | 0 | 20.00K | 0.00K |
| JUSTICEBURG | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:15 | CST-6 | Hail | 2.50 in. | 0 | 0 | 25.00K | 0.00K |
| LORENZO | CROSBY CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:18 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.75 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| POST | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:20 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.50 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| JUSTICEBURG | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:30 | CST-6 | Hail | 3.50 in. | 0 | 0 | 30.00K | 0.00K |
| RALLS | CROSBY CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:45 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| POST | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:50 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.75 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| CLAIREMONT | KENT CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 17:50 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.75 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| POST | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 18:08 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.75 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| JUSTICEBURG | GARZA CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 18:20 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00K | 0.00K |
| IDALOU | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 19:05 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.25 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| ANTON | HOCKLEY CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 19:10 | CST-6 | Hail | 0.88 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| CLAIREMONT | KENT CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 19:15 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| PETERSBURG | HALE CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 19:29 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.00 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| CLAIREMONT | KENT CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 19:56 | CST-6 | Hail | 1.75 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| SHALLOWATER ARPT | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 19:56 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF1 | 0 | 0 | 80.00K | 0.00K |
| COUNTYLINE | HALE CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 20:16 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF1 | 0 | 0 | 50.00K | 0.00K |
| COUNTYLINE | HALE CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 20:26 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF1 | 0 | 0 | 75.00K | 0.00K |
| CLAIREMONT | KENT CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 20:38 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| GIRARD | KENT CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 21:05 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| TAHOKA | LYNN CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 21:10 | CST-6 | Flash Flood | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K | |
| ACUFF | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 21:14 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF1 | 0 | 0 | 25.00K | 0.00K |
| IDALOU | LUBBOCK CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 21:15 | CST-6 | Hail | 0.88 in. | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| SPUR MUNI ARPT | DICKENS CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 21:35 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| GUTHRIE 6666 ARPT | KING CO. | TX | 04/16/2009 | 21:52 | CST-6 | Tornado | EF0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00K | 0.00K |
| Totals: | 0 | 3 | 41.372M | 0.00K |
