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EF3 tornado in Polk County, Texas

Tornado April 22, 2020 · Polk County, Texas

EF3
Rating
28.5 mi
Path length
1,100 yd
Path width
3
Deaths
36
Injuries
$5.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,100 yards (0.62 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

Tornado touched down on the eastern shore of Lake Livingston, just NW of Onalaska then moved SE across the town then ESE across Polk County. Some of the most significant damage was in Paradise Acres area of Onalaska. Winds possibly reached 140 mph as the storm moved across this location, which was the only EF3 damage the NWS could confirm along the 30 mile track. The tornado killed three and injured 33 in Onalaska with 291 homes affected and 46 destroyed. It was estimated to be about 500 yards wide as it moved across the town. The tornado continued a general east-

northeastward track across rural Polk county where it snapped and uprooted numerous hardwood and softwood trees and intermittently damaged structures. The tornado path was measured at just over a half-mile wide as it crossed Highway 59 near Seven Oaks, where EF2 damage was surveyed with destruction of two mobile homes and

damage to hardwood trees. The tornado remained in rural areas until it ended very close to Barnes in northeast Polk county. Near the end of the track, a large tree destroyed a mobile home and miraculously just missed a man who was sitting at his computer. He was not seriously injured. For historical context, this was the deadliest single tornado for the NWS Houston-Galveston forecast area since Nov 15th, 1987 when a tornado also killed three in Madison County. The deadliest tornado on record for this area is the F4 in Galveston which killed 8 during Hurricane Carla in 1961. This is only the 8th multiple-fatality tornado for counties served by our office since 1950.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed in the afternoon and produced large hail, funnel clouds, wind damage and a long-track tornado. The tornado killed 3 people near Onalaska.

Began near Onalaska (30.8409, -95.1824).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 889030. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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