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EF2 tornado in Briscoe County, Texas

Tornado March 28, 2007 · Briscoe County, Texas

EF2
Rating
17.5 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
$175K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Briscoe County → Hall County → Donley County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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

Many storm chasers observed a large multiple vortex tornado that developed north of Quitaque shortly after 17:30 CST. The tornado initially touched down immediately north of Texas Highway 256, and tracked northeastward across the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River. The tornado cut a twelve mile long path through the mesquite thickets of eastern Briscoe County, however, it continued across northwestern Hall County and into extreme southern Donley County before ending at 17:09 CST. The total path length was nearly twenty miles in length.

Despite the rural nature of the area, a few structures sustained significant damage. A trailer house was destroyed about five miles south of the river. The trailer was vacant when the tornado struck, but frequently served to house deer hunters. A single-story residence also was impacted by the tornado near Antelope Flat. The roof was totally blown off of the home. A forty by twenty-four foot barn used to store all-terrain vehicles also was destroyed at the homestead. At least two wind mills were additionally destroyed. The destruction of the trailer house, the complete loss of the roof to the home, and the destruction of the large barn all support an EF2 rating. No injuries were reported.

The wider storm

A second supercell thunderstorm initiated along the dryline over eastern Hale and western Floyd County. This storm produced large hail and a family of tornadoes as it tracked northeastward. The most significant tornado to impact the South Plains region on the 28th developed as this storm tracked over the Caprock Canyons State Park area north of Quitaque (Briscoe County). This tornado damaged at least three structures as it cut a nearly twenty mile path across eastern Briscoe County, northwestern Hall County, and southern Donley County.

Began near Quitaque (34.5037, -101.0500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 21454. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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