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EF0 tornado in Lipscomb County, Texas

Tornado May 23, 2019 · Lipscomb County, Texas

EF0
Rating
4.5 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

Survey was estimated using radar and chaser video. Occurred in open country and no damage was reported.

The wider storm

A vigorous upper level low pressure system developed across southern Nevada. Significant wind shear and instability developed as moisture was drawn north into the Panhandles setting the stage for a very long duration and higher end severe episode. Initially, elevated supercell storms developed in the NW Texas Panhandles on the cold side of a nearly stationary frontal boundary and moved northeast into the central Oklahoma Panhandle as the first of multiple disturbances moved across the area. Hail up to golf ball size and wind damage was reported with these storms.

During the afternoon hours, upper level disturbances, daytime heating and the very pronounced frontal boundary stretching from near Amarillo northeast into Beaver County, Oklahoma became the main catalyst for surface based supercells, which produced very large hail up to baseball size and several tornadoes. Two very large and long tracked tornadoes produced damage across the northeast Panhandles. Both were rated EF-2s based on the damage, but they remained in very rural areas throughout their life-cycle. A total of eight tornadoes occurred during this event, however three of these were landspouts that developed along an outflow produced by storms early in the event. With the loss of daytime heating, supercells congealed into a line which produced gusty winds and hail across the eastern Texas Panhandle before finally moving east and exiting the region in the early morning hours on May 24th.

Began near Lipscomb (36.1721, -100.4427).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 828452. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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