EF2 tornado in Hemphill County, Texas

An EF-2 tornado touched down as a cone at 4:58 PM CDT and quickly became a wedge tornado with a path width of 0.7 miles. Approximately forty individuals took cover in a storm shelter at a drilling rig. Three people outside the shelter were injured and two of them were airlifted with critical injuries. The edge of the tornadic rotation lifted two temporary mobile homes and lofted them 50 to 70 yards completely destroying the structures. Two pickup trucks were also thrown roughly 50 yards. Some debarking of trees was noted near the destroyed mobile homes. Several large temporary structures were also moved from their original locations. This tornado was well witnessed and video documented. Personnel at the drilling rig indicate the large tornado was nearly stationary, moving slightly east and back west before moving back east into their structure.

One of the more active severe weather days of the spring season brought large hail, bigger than baseballs in some cases, flooding, and tornadoes to the Texas Panhandle. One persistent intense supercell moved slowly across Hemphill County near Canadian and produced three tornadoes, one of which caused three injuries and was rated EF-2. Flooding from this slow moving storm closed Highway 83 north of Canadian during the evening. More flooding occurred further south in Armstrong County which caused road closures.