EF1 tornado, Ben Wheeler to Garden Vly, 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 mphthis tornado

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   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

EF1

Date

April 26, 2011

Touchdown

5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)

Lifted

6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)

On the ground

35 minutes

Path length

13.9 miles (22.3 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$200,000

Counties

Van Zandt and Smith counties

Touchdown point

32.431, -95.703

Lift-off point

32.518, -95.481

Record number

1104261645-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD and NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 98 mph.

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

Another round of severe weather occurred on April 26th as another upper level disturbance rounded a larger upper trough and moved into north Texas. A warm front was draped across the region, and the environment was conducive for supercell thunderstorms and tornadoes. Numerous reports of large hail and damaging winds were reported. There were 10 tornadoes confirmed on April 26th, with two rated EF-1 and the remaining rated EF-0. One EF-1 tornado occurred in Van Zandt County, near Ben Wheeler, and tracked nearly 8 miles. The winds were estimated to be near 100 MPH with this tornado. The other EF-1 tornado occurred in downtown Groesbeck causing damage to several buildings.

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.

A NWS Storm Survey determined an EF-1 tornado began approximately 2 miles south of Ben Wheeler and tracked northeast across Van Zandt County before continuing into Smith County. This tornado had a path length of approximately 7.5 miles in Van Zandt County and was estimated to be a 1/2 mile wide. A mobile home south of Ben Wheeler was rolled onto its side, and several homes were damaged 4 miles northeast of Ben Wheeler. The Friendly Center Baptist Church also sustained major damage. Wind speeds were estimated to be 100 MPH. A lady in the rolled mobile home sustained minor injuries.

Multiple trees were snapped along a near 7 mile track in the Northwest sections of Smith County. A tornado moved into Smith County from Van Zandt County 1 mile south of Interstate 20. The tornado continued northeast crossing Interstate 20 about 2 miles east of the Van Zandt/Smith County line, then continued northeast ending 4 miles northwest of Lindale on FM 16. Winds are estimated at 75-85 mph.

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

64 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:41 UTC, 64 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:44 UTC and running to 03:00 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 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 Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 161 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:46 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.