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EF0 tornado in Castro County, Texas

Tornado April 14, 2017 · Castro County, Texas

EF0
Rating
1.9 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$30K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

Several storm chasers observed a tornado that began around the intersection of Farm to Market Road 1055 and County Road 618 and moved east for approximately two miles. Video evidence indicated this tornado moved over a feed lot and then into an open field. Several power lines were downed along Farm to Market Road 1055 and County Road 510.

The wider storm

On the afternoon of the 14th, isolated thunderstorms developed along a dryline over far east-central New Mexico and moved into Parmer and Bailey Counties. Mixed layer CAPE reached values on the order of 3000 J/kg by late afternoon, with low level wind shear amplifying by early evening. One of these storms evolved into a slow moving supercell that persisted for almost nine hours and produced at least seven known tornadoes, including an exceptionally large EF-3 tornado near Dimmitt (Castro County) that damaged some homes and destroyed several structures. It is possible that satellite tornadoes accompanied the larger tornado at times, but no definitive evidence to this point was available. After remaining in Castro County for nearly four hours and producing flash flooding north and northwest of Dimmitt, the supercell storm finally accelerated southeast before dissipating over Motley County around 0100 CST on the 15th. A plethora of video evidence was available from numerous storm chasers observing this supercell.

Began near Dimmitt (34.5017, -102.4101).

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 681563. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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