EF2 tornado in Hall County, Texas

A large tornado developed near Plaska late this afternoon and moved slowly southeastward for the next 15 minutes before dissipating. Several storm chasers documented this tornado as it grew into a wedge shape while wrapping in rain curtains. This tornado and damaging RFD winds toppled several utility poles, heavily damaged and stripped some trees, and destroyed a barn. The damage was found to be consistent with EF-2 winds. There may have been additional, smaller tornadoes concurrently or following this large tornado, however insufficient video evidence and few damage indicators precluded an explicit entry of these tornadoes.

The first in a multi-day event produced widespread large hail, tornadoes, and flash flooding but the largest impacts were felt in the extreme southeastern Texas Panhandle. An upper level jet streak provided the necessary lift acting upon a very unstable and strongly sheared atmosphere. Supercell thunderstorms began as isolated cells on the caprock and became more widespread once they moved off the caprock. Initially, storms produced very large hail and damaging winds but an extremely moist atmosphere and slow movement to the storms brought on flash flooding. The most damaging impacts came in Hall County where a nearly stationary storm dropped up to eight inches of rain. The extreme runoff from the storms inundated normally dry washes and creek beds. The floods damaged or destroyed several bridges and roadways and also lead to high water rescues in Lakeview (Hall County).