EF2 Tornado — Smith, Texas

2016-04-29 · near Lindale, Smith, Texas

Event narrative

A long track multi-vortex EF-2 tornado with peak winds estimated between 120-125 mph touched down just east of Lindale near the intersection of County Road 499 and County Road 4100. The tornado traveled northeast resulting in extensive damage to trees along its path. The tornado was strongest between Farm To Market Road 16 and Farm To Market Road 2710, where a cell phone tower, a house, and two mobile homes sustained major damage from estimated EF-2 tornado winds. This tornado remained on the ground as it crossed a heavily wooded area and the Sabine River into Southeast Wood County.

Wider weather episode

After a brief respite from severe thunderstorms during the predawn hours on April 29th, additional strong to severe thunderstorms developed from the late morning hours through much of the afternoon and evening on April 29th, and lingered through the early morning hours on April 30th. These storms developed along and south of a warm front which lifted into Southeast Oklahoma and the northern sections of Southwest Arkansas, in a warm, moist, and unstable air mass ahead of a series of upper level disturbances that approached the region from the west. Large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes were the result over East Texas by early afternoon, with these severe thunderstorms spreading east into Northern Louisiana and Southwest Arkansas during the late afternoon through the overnight hours. A total of 10 tornadoes touched down across East Texas and Southwest Arkansas, which included a 27 mile long track tornado which touched down near Lindale, Texas in Smith County and remained on the ground before lifting northwest of the community of Bettie in Upshur County. Widespread flash flooding also developed over extreme Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas from late morning through the afternoon on the 29th in response to showers and thunderstorms containing heavy rainfall which moved repeatedly over the same areas. The flash flooding spread across much of East Texas, extreme Northwest Louisiana, and the remainder of Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon through the overnight hours, flooding/washing away numerous roads with water entering homes as well. The severe weather and flash flooding diminished around daybreak on April 30th as the showers and thunderstorms weakened and pushed east of the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.5007, -95.3712)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 624721. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.