EF2 Tornado — Cass, Texas

2022-11-04 · near Hughes Spgs, Cass, Texas

Event narrative

The tornado first touched down just to the southwest of Hughes Springs and then moved northeast into the city limits, where EF-1 damage was noted. Two single family residences sustained damage to the roofs with partial roof removal. The forest station on Pine Street also sustained damage to the roof and walls. Additionally, numerous large trees were downed along the path. Damage continued along CR-2994, just northeast of Hughes Springs, where two well-built homes sustained substantial roof damage consistent with an EF-2 rating. As the tornado continued on its path, it continued to cause EF-1 damage through more rural areas of Cass County, with a consistent path of snapped and uprooted softwood and hardwood trees. The tornado began to intensify near Cusseta, with a tornado debris signature appearing on radar. Here, the tornado caused widespread EF-2 damage to countless hardwood and softwood trees. Trees were snapped and twisted over an extensive area of ground, with the tornado causing EF-1 damage to an old structure located on a small hill. The tornado began to weaken on the north side of Texas Highway 77 west of Douglassville, but not before snapping more hardwood and softwood trees on both sides of the highway. Through the use of high resolution satellite imagery, the track was found to be continuous in areas that originally could not be surveyed by ground.

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 → (32.9829, -94.6450)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1063565. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.