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EF1 tornado in Collin County, Texas

Tornado December 26, 2015 · Collin County, Texas

EF1
Rating
5.2 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
1
Death
2
Injuries
$600K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of an EF-1 tornado for the last tornado of 2015. This tornado produced a fairly wide, serpentine path as it moved through northeastern Collin County. As the tornado was ending, it hit a cluster of mobile homes to the northeast of Blue Ridge, killing a two day old baby.

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 Fayburg (33.2718, -96.3546).

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 606484. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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