EF2 tornado in Dallas County, Texas

The tornado started on Kenmore Street just north of West Miller Road where part of a Sears Facility warehouse was heavily damaged. A wide section of the metal roof was peeled off and subsequently the adjacent metal walls were also torn away. Some of the interior support columns and beams were bent, causing another part of the roof to collapse. In addition, an empty 18 wheeler was tipped over and a van was also on its side. The tornado then struck a newly built warehouse to the east of this facility where nearly the entire building collapsed. The interior support columns were bent to the ground in this facility as the pre-case concrete tilt-up walls collapsed to the east. The damage to these two facilities indicated high end EF-2 damage with winds of 135 mph. Damage from the second warehouse was blown into the adjacent neighborhood to the east across Shiloh Road and damaged some homes. The tornado also snapped and uprooted many trees and damaged many roofs and homes along its path through the residential area from Shiloh Road to Garland Avenue. Roof damage consisted of a combination of loss of decking and shingles. Some roofs were also damaged by fallen trees and other debris. One house in particular on the corner of Westway Avenue and Patricia Lane sustained damage to the garage which partially collapsed. Damage in this neighborhood was consistent of EF-0 and EF-1 damage. The tornado then moved across Garland Ave towards Central Park damaging more roofs and trees near Degge Circle, and then damaging baseball fields and fences at the park. The tornado continued northeast from the park causing minor damage as it weakened, dissipating near Avenue D and Santa Fe Street.

Thunderstorms erupted across the DFW Metroplex as a strong upper level system and a cold front impacted the region on the evening of October 20 through the early morning hours of October 21st. A few storms developed ahead of the approaching cold front in the late evening hours of the 20th, producing tornadoes in Dallas and surrounding areas. Additional storms formed a squall line along the cold front, producing a large swath of damaging winds across North and Central Texas overnight into the early hours of October 21st. A total of 10 tornadoes were identified by NWS Survey teams, occurring both within the storms ahead of the cold front, and embedded within the squall line. The strongest of these tornadoes was an EF-3 that stretched almost 16 miles across the northern portions of Dallas County. Following on the heels of that tornado, an EF-2 tracked about 2.5 miles through Garland in Dallas County. The remaining count of tornadoes included 4 EF-1s and 4 EF-0s. Miraculously, no one was killed or significantly injured in any of the tornadoes! The total estimated cost of insured damage for all the tornadoes alone is over $2 billion, which the Insurance Council of Texas claims is the most costly tornado event in the state's history. Of the straight line wind damage, the most severe was located in Farmersville in Collin Co where a mobile home was rolled and destroyed. Three people were injured in the home. Over a dozen other manufactured homes in the same area were damaged, too.