EF1 tornado in Hansford County, Texas
Tornado May 1, 2024 · Hansford County, Texas
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
This tornado occurred on the northeast side of Spearman. It initially touched down near Brandt Street and Kenneth Avenue(FM 759 760). Here it snapped some tree branches, lifted some carports and caused minor fence damage. It then traveled north along County Road 25, where it snapped a few power poles and this is where it was given its highest rating. As it neared Highway 15, it collapsed an empty grain silo and caused some minor shingle damage to a few roofs along County Road 25. The tornado
turned east, crossing Highway 15 and caused additional minor roof damage and snapped branches to hardwood trees. It finally lifted just to the east of Highway 15. The maximum estimated wind speed was 98mph.
The wider storm
An elongated upper level trough promoted a dryline setup for severe storms in the eastern Texas Panhandle. Parameters that day begun as conditional, as a thick layer of low level clouds were present that morning in the far east, and an outflow boundary had moved in from convection on the previous day. However, as skies started to clear out and the cap was eroded, the true potential of the system was realized and thunderstorms initiated off the dryline between 3 -4 pm. A favorable environment for supercells to produce large hail and even some giant hail had materialized, and despite modest low level wind shear values at the onset of the event, tornadoes quickly spun up and posed threats for locations near Clarendon, in Spearman, and other parts surrounding. Strong downdraft and outflow winds were also a concern, but no reports had come in for straight line wind damage. As storms moved east throughout the afternoon and evening, they weakened as they entered into a less favorable environment thanks to some of the low clouds from the morning not clearing up in time to sustain thunderstorms.
Began near Spearman (36.1978, -101.1874).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
5 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1175477. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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