EF1 Tornado — Donley, Texas

2024-05-01 · near Ashtola, Donley, Texas

Event narrative

This tornado touched down after the initial parent tornado occluded. Based on spotter/chaser video, it appears to have developed in about the same locations as the first Clarendon tornado. It became wide, likely going over the same locations as the previous tornado. It then started to follow the rim of the mesocyclone, likely being more of a satellite tornado around the main mesocyclone. The tornado was recorded as being on the ground for about 15 minutes before finally lifting. It likely did not move very fast before finally becoming corkscrew in nature before lifting. Damage seems to be limited to mesquite brush damage. However, the worst known damage was to a water pumping windmill which was toppled and destroyed by the tornado. The maximum estimated winds were 90mph.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.9207, -101.0125)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1175480. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.