TornadoLookup

Home / Texas / Fort Bend

EF2 tornado in Fort Bend County, Texas

Tornado February 14, 2017 · Fort Bend County, Texas

EF2
Rating
0.7 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 EF-2 tornado's damage path began in the southern portion of Brazos Village on the north side of FM 762 where roofs suffered minor damage and fences were blown down. The path continued east southeastward across FM 762 with more significant damage in the northern portion of Bridlewood Estates. A large abandoned grain dryer was severely damaged and several large metal silos were completely destroyed. One house on the southeast side of the silos had sections of the roof completely removed on both the north and south facing sides. The tornado continued on an east southeast track across the subdivision. The most severe damage was to a large anchored garage which was completely destroyed with debris pushed off to the south southeast. A pickup truck in the driveway was moved and a car inside the garage was lifted and ended up on top of the debris pile. The house directly across the street suffered damage as the front porch and associated supports shifted with the anchored porch columns pushed inward toward the house. Windows were blown out and a wrought iron metal fence concreted into the ground was heavily damaged. Several other roofs in this stretch were damaged along with many fences and trees downed. Aerial drone footage showed well defined path but nonuniform damage. Eyewitnesses from just north of the grain dryer saw strong west to east winds ripping apart the structure but noted winds from north to south when looking west suggesting a large circulation. All features were rain wrapped. Estimated peak winds were 115 mph.

The wider storm

Several morning tornadoes developed as a storm system moved eastward across the state.

Began near Crabb (29.5410, -95.7149).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 681498. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.