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F1 tornado in Madison County, Texas

Tornado December 29, 2006 · Madison County, Texas

Rating

21.6 mi

Whole path

1,320 yd

Path width

Injuries

$755K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Madison County → Leon County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,320 yards (0.75 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Tornado caused three injuries due to a large oak tree falling through a home at Fair Oaks Ranch on the Old Spanish Road. Significant damage to a chicken farm located east of Normangee which killed 15,000 chickens. Numerous trees down, several damaged roofs, and downed power lines along with a power support tower. The most significant damage was reported between Strawther Road and the Willowhold Community with many damaged roofs and downed trees. A horse ranch also received a large amount of damage in the community of Mecca. This tornado was a border-crosser and moved north into Leon County.

The wider storm

A large upper-level low moving into west Texas from AZ-NM provided the large scale lift, or dynamics. Ample low-level instability, mainly very high southeasterly winds just off the surface with good veering of winds under 4k ft, set the stage for isolated tornadoes, damaging straight line winds, and south-to-north streamer/training cells.

Began near North Zulch (30.8333, -96.1000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

F1 Brazos County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 8092. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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