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EF1 tornado in Wheeler County, Texas

Tornado March 24, 2024 · Wheeler County, Texas

EF1
Rating
0.2 mi
Path length
25 yd
Path width
$75K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

This quick, brief tornado touched down to the north of I-40. Spotters reported a funnel cloud had crossed I-40, but no damage was noted. The tornado caused damage to the Dalton O Gorman Rodeo Arena. Here it caused roof damage where a large section of the eastern half of the roof was blown off and the south facing wall was blown down. No other damage occurred in this area so it is believed to be a narrow path. The tornado

lifted soon thereafter. The estimated winds with this tornado was 100mph.

The wider storm

Lingering surface moisture collected along a dryline which eventually lead to the formation of some thunderstorms along a line from Panhandle to Borger to Guymon. This eventually reached an atmospheric environment of better shear and instability in the eastern portions of the Texas Panhandle as well as in Beaver County, Oklahoma. This result in the intensification of storms and a few of these storms became strong with up to on half inch in diameter hail. Storms strengthened further and became severe producing quarter size hail and winds up to 70 mph. Once the dryline passed the surface relative humidity dropped quickly with gusty winds spreading east across the rest of the Panhandles. This kept critical fire conditions in place across the rest of the Panhandles with severe storms exiting to the east. The strong winds associated with this system did pull in a significant amount of dust and pushed into the southern Texas Panhandle.

Began near Shamrock (35.2310, -100.2652).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1166019. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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