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EF1 tornado in Harrison County, Texas

Tornado April 29, 2016 · Harrison County, Texas

EF1
Rating
5.6 mi
Path length
820 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 820 yards (0.47 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

An EF-1 tornado with estimated winds around 95 mph touched down just south of County Road 1311, where it twisted and uprooted numerous trees. It continued north-northeast and passed just east of County Road 1320, where it began to move more northeast parallel with Caney Creek and lifted just west of County Road 1207. All along its path, the tornado twisted several tree trunks, knocked over numerous trees, and uprooted many more.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Elysian Flds (32.3490, -94.2631).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 624730. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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