EF3 Tornado — Runnels, Texas

2019-05-18 · near Miles, Runnels, Texas

Event narrative

This long track EF-3 Tornado damaged or destroyed several homes and outbuildings.

It snapped tree trunks and even swept one home completely off its foundation. The tornado wrapped a woman in carpet and threw her for 150 feet. Thankfully, she survived with minimal injuries. This tornado was multi-vortex at times as it also remained mostly in rural areas. It even lodged a steel C-Purlin into a branch of a Mesquite tree at the Ballinger Country Club. This tornado destroyed the Ballinger High school Baseball field and threw a steel axle into the water tower and punctured it, causing all of the water to drain. This tornado affected 30 homes and destroyed six homes.

Wider weather episode

A highly sheared environment coupled with a very unstable airmass resulted in the development of strong tornadoes during the early morning hours of May 18. At least seven of the eight tornadoes damaged or destroyed several hundred homes across portions of West Central Texas. One of the supercells produced four long track strong tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.5142, -100.0926)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 827234. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.