F2 Tornado — Medina, Texas

2001-10-12 · near Hondo, Medina, Texas

Event narrative

The tornado was spotted as it touched down near 940 pm CST just northwest of the Hondo airport. It grew to nearly 500 yards in width and moved toward the southeast for 1.2 miles across the airport and over the National Guard Armory before dissipating near the center of town. Although much of the damage was F0 and F1 on the Fujita Scale, the tornado was rated F2 because of the level of damage from the airport to the armory. During this time it destroyed a large hangar, partially destroyed the roof and walls of the concrete Armory and moved numerous mobile homes off their pads. One mobile home clearly showed the nature of damage from a tornado. The center of the mobile home was completely destroyed, along with a tree in front of it, while much less damage was indicted on both ends of the mobile home as well as vegetation near the ends. The storm also knocked out power to much of the area, and this, along with the darkness in the late night hour, made spotting very difficult. It is possible that additional small tornadoes might have accompanied the storm, but the combination of damage from the large tornado and the downburst winds, along with the darkness of the late night hour made it impossible to tell. Almost 150 homes in Hondo and almost 50 more outside the city were damaged, with nearly 100 mobile homes damaged. At least 10 houses and 30 mobile homes were destroyed. Losses to homes and mobile homes were estimated at 1.5 million dollars. In addition, nearly two dozen aircraft, including one corporate jet and 14 crop dusters, were damaged and destroyed at the Hondo Airport. Some were in collapsed hangars while others were lifted, tossed and set down across the Airport area. Commercial losses placed at 18 million dollars. At least 25 persons were injured.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5269721. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.