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EF1 tornado in Bee County, Texas

Tornado June 2, 2010 · Bee County, Texas

EF1
Rating
7.6 mi
Whole path
440 yd
Path width
$70K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through San Patricio County → Bee County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

An NWS Survey concluded and EF-1 tornado touched down approximately 1.5 miles southeast of Tynan, in a grain field south of FM 796. The tornado was approximately 1/4 mile wide, and on the ground for roughly 2.51 miles in San Patricio County before crossing into Bee County. The tornado then continued roughly another 5 miles to the east-southeast on the Bee and San Patricio County line, or just inside the Bee County line. Crops were flattened, several large crop sprinklers flipped over, a shed was partially destroyed, and power poles snapped along the path. Maximum wind speeds of 90 mph were estimated.

The wider storm

During the late afternoon on June 2, 2010, thunderstorms developed over central Texas and the Sierra Madre of Mexico. A very unstable air mass was present over South Texas (CAPE values from 4500 to 5500 J/kg). At 7 pm CDT, the first line of thunderstorms entered the Rio Grande Valley and produced hail up to the size of nickels, localized flooding and strong winds. The second line of thunderstorms extended across much of Central Texas and began accelerating and tracking southward from Tilden to Goliad by late in the evening. The two lines of thunderstorms merged around Tilden and Choke Canyon Reservoir near 1000 pm CDT causing intensification to the convective complex of storms. This was evident by severe storms over Live Oak and Bee counties with increased reflectivity and cloud to ground lightning between 1030 and 1100 pm CDT. At the same time, the northern

line of thunderstorms continued through the Victoria Crossroads area and slowly weakened.

The strongest portion of the solid line of thunderstorms continued southeastward into the central Coastal Bend. Reports of trees down and power outages increased from along I-37 to Corpus Christi from the most intense portion of the line of thunderstorms. WSR-88D detected small areas of rotation over Aransas, San Patricio and Nueces Counties between 1100 and midnight CDT when tornado warnings were issued. Wind gusts of 60 mph were common from automated weather stations as the storms slammed the lower Coastal Bend. Power outages from the wind were significant by midnight and there were many reports of trees and power lines down, and rescue operations for recreational trailers that were tipped over on the base of Navy Corpus Christi and a flipped 18-wheeler. In this area, automated sensors measured wind as high as 80 mph. The lightning was intense and continuous

at times, which caused additional damage to a few structures. The line of thunderstorms produced widespread 1 to 2 inches of rain across South Texas with locally higher amounts. Total cloud to ground lightning strikes observed by

the National Lightning Detection Network were near 38,000 from 800 pm to 200 am CDT. In Nueces County up to 31,000 residence had interruption to their power according to AEP.

Began near Tynan (28.1545, -97.7023).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 247797. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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