EF1 tornado in Kaufman County, Texas

A tornado formed in open country approximately 3.5 miles SE of Elmo. Moving northeastward, this tornado removed sheet metal from an outbuilding on ranch property. Immediately after crossing Kaufman County Road 314, the tornado intensified, snapping two power poles along CR 314 and impacting a single family residence and adjacent outbuildings. An adjacent metal barn was severely damaged, with the sheet metal roof almost completely removed and steel trusses severely bent. Several large trees on the property were snapped or sustained major trunk damage. A personal weather station on the roof of the home measured a wind gust of 100 mph during the tornado, and damage elsewhere on the property was consistent with 95-105 mph EF-1 intensity windspeeds.

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.