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EF3 tornado in Gray County, Texas

Tornado November 16, 2015 · Gray County, Texas

EF3
Rating
31.9 mi
Whole path
750 yd
Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 750 yards (0.43 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 long track tornado caused damage mainly to power lines and trees due to its rural track. It was the first tornado to pass near Pampa. Some trees were debarked and completely defoliated leaving only the trunks. The collapse of a high tension power line metal truss tower is the basis for the EF-3 rating. Maximum winds were estimated to be 140 mph. The tornado continued into Roberts County.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Kings Mill (35.2990, -101.0210).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 608861. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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