EF3 Tornado — Gray, Texas

2015-11-16 · near Pampa, Gray, Texas

Event narrative

This tornado was produced by the second supercell thunderstorm to impact the Pampa area and the same storm which resulted in the Groom tornado. The most significant damage was to the Halliburton Plant just east of Pampa. Sturdy commercial steel framed building at the Halliburton Plant were completely leveled with nmerous vehicles tossed on top of the rubble. This tornado was less than 3 miles from directly hitting the city of Pampa. One manufactured home was completely destroyed south of Pampa. This tornado was rated EF-3 with maximum winds estimated to be 155 mph based on the degree of damage.

Wider weather episode

A powerful storm system brought significant severe weather to the region. Tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail accompanied thunderstorms that formed during the afternoon hours and persisted into the evening. This was a very unusual event for late fall in the Central High Plains. One significant factor in this anomalous event was the presence of an unusual amount of moisture for mid-November, contributing to relatively high values of instability. No tornadoes had previously been documented in the Texas Panhandle during the month of November.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4570, -100.9660)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 608859. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.