EF2 Tornado — Wilson, Texas

2015-10-30 · near Floresville, Wilson, Texas

Event narrative

A tornado touched down near Hickory Circle about 0.5 miles south of Floresville. The tornado produced tree and minor roof damage across several city streets as it moved north. The damage increased in coverage and intensity as it approached Hwy 181. Just east of the intersection of Hwys 181 and 97, substantial roof damage was observed to a few homes as well as businesses along Hwy 181. This included several campers and recreational vehicles that were destroyed. One 5th wheel camper was thrown on top of a local hotel. One large billboard metal sign and structure was destroyed along with multiple power poles. The damage peaked at Floresville high school. A large two story classroom building on campus had the upper story wall collapse inward which appears to have caused a partial roof collapse of the building. The other side of the building had its wall blown out toward Hwy 97. Winds were estimated to be 120 mph. Other minor window damage and impact damage was observed at the school. The tornado weakened as it continued north of the high

school and west of Hwy 97, producing minor roof, shingle, and tree damage. City damage is estimated at 1.5 million dollars, this does not include insured losses and damage to the High School.

Wider weather episode

A warm front combined with an upper level trough and deep moisture produced heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms across much of South Central Texas on October 30th and 31st. Damage surveys confirmed four tornadoes. Along with the severe weather, excessive rainfall resulted in widespread flash flooding along the Interstate 35 corridor Friday morning. Rainfall rates on the order of 5-7 inches per hour fell from San Marcos up through South Austin. Historic rainfall totals fell at the Austin Airport where over 1 foot of rain fell within a few hours time. 12.49 inches of rain for Oct 30 was the most ever in one day for Austin. Other daily rainfall totals exceeded 15 inches. Record flooding occurred in southern Travis County and portions of Hays County. River and creek flooding was extensive across Hays, Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, and Comal Counties. Many areas, especially in San Marcos, compared this flooding to the record flooding of Oct 1998. Estimates of 2000 homes were flooded in or near this I-35 corridor, many of them destroyed or sustained Major damage. Estimates of insured losses were not available as of this writing, but the counties experienced monetary losses in the tens of millions.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.1270, -98.1550)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 605487. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.