EF2 tornado, Cave Spgs to Crossroads, Texas, April 26, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF2

Date

April 26, 2011

Touchdown

7:04 PM CDT (00:04 UTC)

Lifted

7:14 PM CDT (00:14 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.2 miles (8.3 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

32.431, -94.353

Lift-off point

32.456, -94.269

Record number

1104261804-01

65 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• .OUTBUILDING COMPLETELY DESTROYED.
• .LARGE HARDWOOD TREE TOPPLED/UPROOTED.
• .TOP OF LARGE HARDWOOD TREE RIPPED OFF.
• .LARGE HARDWOOD TREES SNAPPED AT BASE.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A very volatile atmosphere developed during the late afternoon...evening and overnight hours of April 26th across the Four State Region. An area of low pressure moved from the Texas Hill Country into Northeast Texas during the afternoon. Meanwhile, a warm front had moved northward from central Louisiana and was oriented west to east near the Arkansas/Louisiana state line. A dry line had moved just east of the I-35 corridor of North Central Texas and a strong cold front trailed the dry line. Very strong speed and directional shear was noted in the low and mid levels of the atmosphere such that supercells developed. Many of these produced tornadoes across the region. Other storms produced strong straight line wind gusts with bowing segments and large hail.

This tornado was a continuation of the tornado that moved out of extreme northwestern Panola County and into extreme southern Harrison County. This tornado continued to snap several trees before lifting as it crossed Hwy. 43. Winds were estimated at 86-95 mph.

A few trees were snapped at their base and had large limbs broken off with the initial touchdown along FM 2625 just west of Highway 59. The tornado continued northeast paralleling FM 2625 causing sporadic tree damage until it reached the intersection of FM 2625 and Taylor Road. The tornado strengthened rapidly in a short timeframe causing EF2 damage to two residential homes and EF1 damage to a third. One house completely lost its roof while another had an entire room destroyed. The third home had its metal roof peeled off while sustaining partial wall failure. Numerous trees in the vicinity of the homes were completely toppled or had their tops sheared off. The tornado continued to the northeast where it intersected Blocker Road near FM 2625 causing various amounts of tree damage to several trees there. The tornado continued to the northeast dissipating over a logging road a mile to the east of Blocker Road. Maximum winds were estimated at 120-125 mph.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

30 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:34 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:46 UTC and running to 02:43 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:47 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:03 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

58 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.