EF3 Tornado — Glasscock, Texas

2016-05-22 · near Garden City, Glasscock, Texas

Event narrative

A thunderstorm moved across Glasscock County and produced a tornado near Garden City. This tornado developed just west of Ranch Road 33, four miles north northwest of Garden City around 8:42 pm CDT. The tornado moved southward, knocking over a 640 type pump jack located approximately two and a quarter miles north of Garden City. This type of occurrence is associated with wind speeds in the 140-160 mph range. Thus, the tornado has been rated as briefly reaching EF-3 intensity. Broken tree limbs were observed by the assessment team two miles north of Garden City, just west of Ranch Road 33. This damage indicator suggested the tornado had weakened to EF-1 intensity at that point. This weakening trend coincided with the tornado taking a more southeast track as it crossed Ranch Road 33. The tornado dissipated at 8:54 pm CDT, two miles north of Garden City. In total, the tornado traveled a 3.7 mile path and had an estimated width of 200 yards. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate.

Wider weather episode

West Texas was under the backside of a ridge with a dryline across the area which provided lift. Good instability, moisture convergence, and high convective available potential energy was present along and to the east of the dryline. Wind shear was also high over the area, and a low level jet of high winds allowed for storms to continue into the late evening hours. These conditions contributed to thunderstorms that produced large hail, strong wind, flash flooding, and tornadoes across the Permian Basin.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.9235, -101.5261)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 631198. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.