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EF3 tornado in Ellis County, Texas

Tornado December 26, 2015 · Ellis County, Texas

EF3
Rating
8.5 mi
Whole path
125 yd
Path width
46
Injuries
$9.7M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Ellis County → Dallas County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 125 yards (0.07 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

This tornado produced a long and narrow damage path from just northeast of the Mid-Way Regional airport near Midlothian to the Ellis County line. The tornado then continued into Dallas County. Sixty-seven single family homes were affected, with 23 of these being completely destroyed. The strongest portion of the tornado occurred near the Ellis / Dallas County line, with EF3 damage observed in both counties.

The wider storm

A potent storm system brought deadly tornadoes and severe weather to North Texas on the 26th followed by waves of heavy rainfall that resulted in significant flooding across parts of North and Central Texas. Twelve tornadoes were confirmed on the afternoon and evening of the 26th, killing 13 and injuring over 300. The strongest tornado was an EF-4 that struck the Garland and Rowlett areas of Dallas and Rockwall County and where most of the fatalities occurred. Then the waves of heavy rain persisted through the night of the 27th until the upper level low moved past the region. The heaviest rainfall and thus most significant flooding was along and east of Interstate 35 where an average of 3-6+ of rain fell.

Began near Sardis (32.4623, -96.9090).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

11 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 606461. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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