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EF0 tornado in Sabine County, Texas

Tornado December 24, 2009 · Sabine County, Texas

EF0
Rating
0.3 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$1K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along Lakeshore Drive east of the town of Fairmont, Texas. Several powerlines were also downed on either side of Toledo Beach Drive. Maximum winds are estimated at 65-70 mph.

The wider storm

A strong upper level storm system moved its way out of the southern Great Basin and into the Southern Plains during the afternoon hours of December 23rd. Strong southerly flow was found ahead of this storm system with dewpoint temperatures in the lower to middle 60s noted northward to the Interstate 20 corridor of northeast Texas and northern Louisiana. Impressive deep layer shear was noted in the warm sector across the region which was conducive for discrete storm cells during the afternoon and evening across northeast Texas. These storms spawned tornadoes and produced large hail across portions of northeast Texas. The storm system moved eastward during the predawn hours of December 24th with again, numerous storms producing tornadoes across southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. In addition to all the storm damage...these storms were prolific rain makers with numerous reports of flash flooding across the region as well.

Began near Fairmount (31.2082, -93.7290).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

10 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 203003. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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