EF3 Tornado — Bell, Texas

2022-04-12 · near Youngsport, Bell, Texas

Event narrative

This tornado began in northern Williamson County and additional information about the beginning of this tornado track can be found from the NWS Austin/San Antonio office.

Video evidence taken on the ground during the tornadic event, and areal footage of the damage track show the parent circulation produced at least 3 small, brief tornadoes while the storm circulation was near and east of the county line. Scattered damage points and small paths are making it difficult to determine which areas may have been impacted by each of these smaller tornadoes before the parent tornado formed. Therefore, in the area just east of the Williamson/Bell County line, the damage extent of the tornadic track has been widened to include all the known damage points (all EF-0s or EF-1s). In this case, since it is too difficult to discern the smaller tracks, and because they all formed from the same parent circulation within a short amount of time of each other, they will all be considered one tornado. The maximum width listed will remain the maximum width of the parent tornado (the EF-3 tornado).

The tornado, which began in northern Williamson County, entered extreme southern Bell County north of the junction between Bell County Road 231 and FM 2843. In this area there was a narrow swath of tree damage consistent with EF-0 intensity wind speeds, with some damage to outbuildings as well. The tornado moved east-northeast and intersected FM 2843, where the damage to trees and structures became much more significant. At least 15-20 damaged homes were visible to the survey team on both sides of FM 2843, with the most significant damage concentrated near the junction of FM 2843 and Buttermilk Road. In this vicinity, at least 10 structures suffered EF-2 to EF-3 intensity damage, with a small cluster of homes experiencing estimated peak tornado wind speeds of 150 to 165 mph. These structures had all or most of their roofs removed, and some of them had one or more exterior walls collapsed. Two churches along FM 2843 in the vicinity of Buttermilk Road were seriously damaged, with roofing material removed and multiple walls collapsed. Numerous vehicles in the area had significant damage consistent with being rolled or having flying projectiles thrown into them. Many hardwood trees along the FM 2843 corridor in the tornado path were uprooted or snapped, and many power poles were also snapped.

Beyond Buttermilk Road, the tornado continued traveling east-northeastward another 1.5 miles along FM 2843, then began a sharp turn to the northeast and eventually a northerly direction. Aerial footage allowed us to track the damage through inaccessible areas where notable tree damage, damage to homes and barns was observed along the path of the tornado.

The tornado reached Crows Ranch Rd and damaged aluminum panels of the roof of a home and blew in the panel garage door. It continued over a ridge line, then intensified again shortly before crossing FM 2484. It uprooted many large trees, shifted a large barn's walls, lifted roof panels off a shed, and caused significant damage to a residence. The residence's roof was almost entirely removed from the structure, and a section of the south facing wall was blown in. The east facing wall was completely blown out, all consistent with a high-end EF2 rating in this location. The tornado then continued northwest into the South Shore neighborhood, and then into Union Grove Park where it lifted shortly after moving onto Stillhouse Hollow Lake.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms developed along a dryline across the Big Country the afternoon of Tuesday April 12, then spread east across North and Central Texas, producing all modes of severe weather. Extremely large hail occurred over parts of our Central Texas counties, where a record-breaking hailstone over 5.6 inches in length was documented in the Salado area of Bell County. This hailstone is now the largest recorded hailstone in our CWA to date. Two tornadoes also occurred across Central Texas in Bell County. An EF-3 tornado started in Williamson County and moved northeast and then northerly across the Salado area. Twenty-three people were injured but no fatalities occurred. Additional storms developed overnight into Wednesday as a cold front pushed through the area, some of which also became severe.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.8918, -97.7303)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1022969. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.