EF1 Tornado — Sabine, Texas

2013-02-21 · near Plainview, Sabine, Texas

Event narrative

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey across Sabine County Texas and determined that an EF1 tornado touched down north of Pineland, Texas. The tornado first touched down along Charlie Forse Road...snapping large branches along the road. The tornado then crossed FM. 1 at Strickland Crossing West...snapping and uprooting numerous trees and rolling a mobile home on its side. Other trees fell onto several homes as the tornado continued east along Strickland Crossing West...where a 74 year old female was killed as a result of severe head injuries when a tree fell onto her while she was sleeping in her mobile home. The tornado continued northeast crossing Plainview Road/FM 2024...and over a heavily wooded area while snapping additional trees...before lifting along Bennet Road.

Wider weather episode

A deep upper level trough ejected out of the Four Corners region of the country and into the plains during the afternoon hours of February 21st. During the morning of the 21st...elevated convection became rather widespread across the region and most of these storms produced hail. A warm front was located across the Southeast Texas and Southern Louisiana coast during the early morning hours of the 21st but as the day progressed...the warm front came north to near the Interstate 20 corridor of Northeast Texas and Northern Louisiana. This lead to a very warm and unstable airmass infiltrating the region from the south. Low level shear was very strong both in speed and direction along the vicinity of this warm front and as as result...a few tornadoes developed across the region. Otherwise...the storms continued to produce hail and some wind damage from straight line winds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.3157, -93.9751)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 428124. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.