EF3 Tornado — Kaufman, Texas

2012-04-03 · near Forney, Kaufman, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-3 tornado did extensive damage as it wound its way through the town of Forney. The tornado began near the intersection of Broad St and N Bois D'arc Street just southwest of Highway 80. As it moved to the northeast, the first significant damage was noted near Aimee St and N Bois D'arc St. There was substantial tree damage with some large trees uprooted near this intersection. Also, shingle damage, roof damage to a fire station nearby, blown out windows at a few homes and an outbuilding was destroyed, all near this intersection. A street sign at the intersection was also completely bent flat near the base. The tornado moved northeast and crossed Hwy 80 near the Forney Cleaners business where substantial roof and commercial sign damage occurred. Debris was also observed in the median between the east and westbound lanes near this location. The tornado continued northeast producing light damage to industrial buildings, but was largely over open fields. The tornado then crossed over Ridgecrest Rd and produced substantial damage to many homes in the Diamond Creek subdivision. One of the first homes struck was on Woodberry Dr and was completely destroyed. Several more homes were destroyed in this subdivision and other homes sustained substantial damage. It was determined that several of the destroyed homes were destroyed as the result of excessive lift being forced upon the roof, and the roofs of these homes were poorly attached to the external walls of the home. Once the roofs failed, pressure built up on internal walls causing the failure of nearly all external and internal walls. As the tornado continued northeast through the subdivision it consistently produced damage to homes, most of which was different degrees of roof or top floor damage. The tornado exited the subdivision at Crosby Elementary School. The tornado damaged several vehicles that were in the school's parking lot. One vehicle was lofted approximately 300 yards into a field northeast of the school. The school itself sustained mainly roof damage. Children were in the school when the tornado struck, but no injuries occurred. The tornado continued northeast for several miles, producing light/EF-0 damage along the way. In total, this tornado destroyed 14 homes, caused major damage to 28 homes and minor damage to another 42 homes. Many of the damaged homes were in the Diamond Creek Subdivision. Due to damage in the Diamond Creek Subdivision, the maximum estimated winds with this tornado were 150 mph. The path length was approximately 7.7 miles, and the maximum width was 150 yards. Seven people sustained non life-threatening injuries.

Wider weather episode

A historic North Texas tornado outbreak occurred on April 3rd, with 17 tornadoes developing from the DFW Metroplex east to Hopkins County. An EF-3 tornado tore through the town of Forney, heavily damaging homes in the Diamond Creek subdivision. Three EF-2 tornadoes damaged parts of Arlington and Kennedale in Tarrant County; Red Oak, Lancaster, and Dallas in Ellis and Dallas counties; and Royse City in Rockwall and Hunt counties. An EF-1 tornado caused damage near Joshua in Johnson County, and the remaining 12 tornadoes were rated EF-0s. In addition to the tornadoes, large hail damaged many parts of the DFW Metroplex. Approximately 110 airplanes at DFW International Airport were damaged by the hail and taken out of service until repaired. No fatalities occurred and only 29 people were injured. Of the 29 injuries, only 3 were considered serious but everyone made a full recovery. The environmental set-up on this day consisted of a cut-off low over New Mexico with a front draped north-to-south across the western counties of the CWA. By mid to late morning, strong and severe storms developed along the front as a lobe of energy rotated into west Texas and forcing from this energy overspread the front. The atmosphere was already unstable and uncapped by this time. In addition, a Mesoscale Convective System in Oklahoma sent an outflow boundary south across the Red River. This outflow boundary moved south of the DFW Metroplex by the late morning hours, and isolated storms began to develop south of the outflow boundary but east of the front. As these storms moved north and crossed the outflow boundary, the low level rotation increased and the storms quickly became tornadic. All of the tornadic storms were tied to this outflow boundary as it retreated north as a warm front.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.7495, -96.4700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 377573. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.