EF4 Tornado — Red River, Texas

2022-11-04 · near Rugby, Red River, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-4 tornado initially touched down near the Fulbright community southwest of Clarksville. An aerial survey confirmed that the tornado damage was to tin metal roof panels that were peeled off of a plant on CR-1200. As the tornado continued northeast, near FM-411, a single family home had all of its walls removed with only the interior room left standing where a family of three sheltered where winds were estimated at 150 mph. After it crossed FM-411, it hit another single family home and collapsed all the walls, injuring a woman who left her vehicle to take shelter inside the home. The tornado continued on to CR-1275 where debarking of a few trees was first observed in addition to thousands of trees that were snapped and uprooted throughout the path of the tornado. It then crossed US-82, CR-2123, CR-2124, and FM-2283. At FM-2283, it destroyed a single family home along with several outbuildings. This area could not be surveyed at this location as debris removal had already begun. The tornado then continued to move along CR-2125 and CR-2030 before taking a more eastward jog across SH-37. At this point, it is estimated that it was about a third of a mile wide and it began to widen further as it demonstrated more widespread tree snaps and isolated debarking throughout the remainder of Red River County. After crossing SH-37, the tornado wiped a single family home off of its foundation north of Clarksville with large portions of the walls and roof carried several hundred yards northeast of the home. This damage was surrounded by widespread tree snaps with isolated debarking. This location was reviewed by a regional Quick Response Team (QRT) that determined the damage at this location was EF-4 with maximum winds of 170 mph. This was based on the construction of the home, the debris field spread 50-200 yards downstream from the home in small pieces, and the slab of the home being wiped clean. Ten people on the property of the home took shelter in an oil drain of a metal outbuilding that was completely destroyed with no injuries. The damage swath widened to approximately 0.6 miles northeast of Clarksville as it approached Acworth and continued to cross the Red River. Before it crossed the Red River, it collapsed all the walls on a single family home and completely destroyed Mount Olive Church. It then lifted a double-wide manufactured home off the ground near FM-1159 and threw it 50 yards with three dogs inside that all survived. The tornado then crossed the Red River into south-central McCurtain County, Oklahoma.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level trough progressed through the Rockies and into the Central and Southern Plains during the day on November 4th, enhancing strong surface low development over the Upper Red River Valley into Oklahoma. This produced a strong pressure gradient over the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley, allowing for very rich Gulf moisture to surge north across the Ark-La-Tex area into Eastern Oklahoma and much of Arkansas. This generated moderate instability across these areas during the afternoon, as temperatures rose into the lower to mid 80s. Very strong wind shear was also in place over these areas, with the upper trough reinforcing a cold front southeast into Southeast Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, and East Texas. This trough enhanced large scale forcing along the front, with discrete supercell development also occurring ahead of the main line of storms over portions of East Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Arkansas. Multiple tornadoes, some strong, touched down across these areas, with additional instances of damaging winds also reported before the line of storms overtook these discrete supercells and shifted east across the remainder of East Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and into North Louisiana during the evening and overnight hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.5047, -95.2418)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1063274. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.