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EF2 tornado in Jones County, Texas

Tornado May 23, 2023 · Jones County, Texas

EF2
Rating
4.6 mi
Path length
700 yd
Path width
2
Injuries
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 supercell thunderstorm moving slowly southward through eastern Jones County

produced a weak tornado 2 miles east of Funston around 9:13pm.

Very little, if any, damage occurred during this phase of the

event. At about 9:40pm, the tornado was moving southwestward

before it was intercepted by an eastward-moving bow echo about 2

miles south of Funston. The bow echo pushed the tornado back

northeastward and the circulation rapidly intensified for about

five minutes. During this time, the tornado widened and caused

significant damage to some homes at the intersection of CR376 and

CR364. Two manufactured homes were rolled and or completely

destroyed. It was noted that the hurricane straps failed on one of

the manufactured homes, causing it to roll off of its foundation.

A small single-family residence sustained significant roof damage

and caused an enclosed porch to become detached from the home.

The tornado continued northeastward for nearly a mile before

becoming fully absorbed into the straight-line winds of the bow

echo at about 9:47 pm.

The wider storm

The combination of strong instability and locally enhanced upper level winds produced isolated severe thunderstorms during the evening hours across the Big Country and Concho Valley. A supercell thunderstorm produced a strong tornado causing significant damage in Jones County just east of Funston. Otherwise, the severe storms produced large hail and isolated damaging winds.

Began near Funston (32.7230, -99.7890).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1101184. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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