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EF3 tornado in Runnels County, Texas

Tornado May 18, 2019 · Runnels County, Texas

EF3
Rating
18.0 mi
Path length
1,760 yd
Path width
$6.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,760 yards (1.00 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Miles (31.5142, -100.0926).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Runnels CountyEF3 Coleman CountyEF2 Schleicher CountyEF2 Tom Green CountyEF2 Taylor CountyEF1 Taylor CountyEFU McCulloch County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 827234. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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