EF1 tornado in Swisher County, Texas

The fourth tornado in the Olton-Edmonson-Tulia family occurred in north-central Swisher County. The tornado reportedly appeared visually as a large cone-shaped tornado that persisted for five minutes as it impacted mainly rural areas northeast of Tulia and west of Vigo Park. One large barn was heavily damaged by the tornado in the vicinity of Farm to Market Road 2698/146.

An outbreak of severe weather impacted much of the central U.S. from Minnesota to Texas during the late afternoon and evening hours of the 21st. The west Texas South Plains and the extreme southern Texas Panhandle were affected by a series of significant tornadoes. At least five tornadoes were spawned by a single cyclic supercell thunderstorm that resulted in more than $3.5 million in damages.

The most severely impacted communities included Olton (Lamb County) and Tulia (Swisher County). Both of these west Texas towns were impacted by EF-2 tornadoes that destroyed property and injured four people, and more than 14,000 customers were without electrical power throughout the night.

The tornado outbreak was caused by a potent storm system that progressed east over the Four Corners region of the western U.S. on the 21st. A potent upper level jet stream spread over the Southern Plains of the U.S., and helped to create a favorable environment for supercell thunderstorms and tornadoes along a dryline that was stretched across west Texas.