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EF0 tornado in Bell County, Texas

Tornado April 12, 2022 · Bell County, Texas

EF0
Rating
3.7 mi
Path length
120 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 120 yards (0.07 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

A tornado was visually confirmed by storm chasers, but only scattered broken tree branches were found. The first tree branches were found near the intersection of Seaton Road and Big Elm Creek, with additional branches found along rural roads. The tornado lifted over Twister Road shortly after crossing FM 437.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Seaton (31.0408, -97.2170).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1022972. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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