F2 Tornado — Childress, Texas

2006-05-09 · near Childress, Childress, Texas

Event narrative

A tornado resulted in significant (F2) damage along a one and half mile path through the north side of Childress during the evening hours of the 9th. The tornado developed in a residential are of northwest Childress at 20:30 CST. Damage in the neighborhood was characterized as weak, with numerous downed trees, street signs, and damaged roofs. A resident was injured when a tree fell and struck him, breaking his arm and causing minor lacerations.The tornado then moved east toward the high school. Damage to the high school was extensive. A local television network, KVII-TV in Amarillo, operates an automated weather station on the campus as part of a regional school net. The instrument measured a 109 MPH wind gust as the tornado ripped through the facility at 20:32 CST. Damage at Childress High School was rated F1, with large brick walls blown inn and portions of the building's roof removed. The gymnasium was declared a total loss.The tornado intensified as it continued to move east across Fair Park. A large industrial building used to house city owned emergency vehicles was completely destroyed, with extensive damage to the fleet of vehicles that were parked inside. A tennis court was destroyed by wind-blown debris, and numerous large trees were uprooted. A large stone picnic table was blown northward along the wind fields convergent axis associated with center of the tornado's path. A well-built metal bridge that spanned Park Lake was blown a considerable distance downwind. Damage along the tornado's path through the park justified a significant rating (F2) on the Fujita Tornado Damage Intensity Scale. This given the magnitude of damage observed at the industrial building site, where large steel beams were completely torn from their bolted fixtures.The damage survey indicated that the tornado quickly weakened as it continued to move east of the park, and into more rural areas in the northeastern outskirts of the city.

Wider weather episode

May 9 Severe Thunderstorm and Significant Tornado Event Summary...Two isolated supercell thunderstorms developed east of a dryline that was roughly oriented along the Caprock Escarpment during the late afternoon and early evening hours of the 9th. These storms evolved into splitting supercells, and resulted in large hail up to two inches in diameter in Dickens and Motley Counties. The anticyclonic member from one of the mentioned storms propagated northward over Childress County during the early evening hours. The storm effectively lowered temperature-to-dewpoint depressions and locally backed the near-surface winds. A classic supercell subsequently propagated southeastward out of the Texas Panhandle and over Hall County. This storm interacted with the "outflow boundary" left by the departing anticyclonic storm. The southeastward propagating storm rapidly became tornadic near the northwestern corner of Childress. Large hail, damaging RFD winds, and the significant (F2) tornado resulted in nearly $6 million in damages and injured one. A school net weather instrument located at the heavily damaged Childress High School measured a peak wind gust of 109 MPH as the tornado destroyed the school's gymnasium.A second round of isolated severe storms produced large hail over the extreme southeastern Texas Panhandle as clean-up crews worked in the damaged areas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.4167, -100.2000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5506183. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.