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EF3 tornado in Runnels County, Texas

Tornado May 18, 2019 · Runnels County, Texas

EF3

Rating

5.8 mi

Path length

1,760 yd

Path width

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 large, wide path tornado remained mostly in the rural part of eastern Runnels County. It damaged and even snapped tree trunks. It toppled four high tension steel towers and destroyed another. The tornado also destroyed a few outbuildings and a Recreational Vehicle. The debris was thrown for at least a half mile.

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 Crews (31.8350, -99.7791).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Runnels County EF3 Coleman County EF2 Schleicher County EF2 Tom Green County EF2 Taylor County EF1 Taylor County EFU McCulloch County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 827374. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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