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EF2 tornado in Colorado County, Texas

Tornado May 10, 2012 · Colorado County, Texas

EF2
Rating
0.6 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
8
Injuries
$500K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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

The tornado touched down near a railroad track producing a small area of EF-2 damage when boxcars of a parked train were overturned. The tornado tracked toward the north northeast across a cemetery. Extensive tree damage occurred with numerous large trees snapped and debris deposited in different directions. The tornado then continued onto the grounds of Weimar High School where the press box of the football field was destroyed, stadium light poles were snapped, and a metal storage building was damaged. Eight injuries were reported, most of them occurring when a food service truck was overturned in the school parking lot.

The wider storm

A strong upper level disturbance led to widespread severe weather across south Texas and the coastal bend region. An isolated thunderstorm across Colorado county produced a brief, but strong tornado during this event.

Began near Weimar (29.6992, -96.7935).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 385726. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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