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EF3 tornado in Houston County, Texas

Tornado December 25, 2012 · Houston County, Texas

EF3

Rating

9.7 mi

Path length

300 yd

Path width

$700K

Damage as recorded

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 EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 worst of the tornado damage, rated EF3, was along Highway 287, or one mile north of the town of Pennington. An agricultural feed store and restaurant were completely destroyed with the debris scattered off toward the east in a field. There was severe damage to several homes and trailers along the path of the tornado that was indicative of either EF1 or EF2 scale damage.

The wider storm

On Christmas Day strong to severe thunderstorms developed along a warm front that was lifting north through the area. One of those storms produced an EF-3 tornado near Pennington, TX.

Began near Fodice (31.1613, -95.3208).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Houston County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 426570. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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