EF3 tornado, Blackland to Union Vly, Texas, April 3, 2012

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 3, 2012

Touchdown

3:56 PM CDT (20:56 UTC)

Lifted

4:04 PM CDT (21:04 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.4 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$16 million

Counties

Rockwall and Hunt counties

Touchdown point

32.878, -96.329

Lift-off point

32.908, -96.283

Record number

1204031456-01

38 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

• debris is from house frame of neigboring lot that was under construction. see pics
• metal sheet wrapped around lightpole

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

A historic North Texas tornado outbreak occurred on April 3rd, with 17 tornadoes developing from the DFW Metroplex east to Hopkins County. An EF-3 tornado tore through the town of Forney, heavily damaging homes in the Diamond Creek subdivision. Three EF-2 tornadoes damaged parts of Arlington and Kennedale in Tarrant County; Red Oak, Lancaster, and Dallas in Ellis and Dallas counties; and Royse City in Rockwall and Hunt counties. An EF-1 tornado caused damage near Joshua in Johnson County, and the remaining 12 tornadoes were rated EF-0s. In addition to the tornadoes, large hail damaged many parts of the DFW Metroplex. Approximately 110 airplanes at DFW International Airport were damaged by the hail and taken out of service until repaired. No fatalities occurred and only 29 people were injured. Of the 29 injuries, only 3 were considered serious but everyone made a full recovery. The environmental set-up on this day consisted of a cut-off low over New Mexico with a front draped north-to-south across the western counties of the CWA. By mid to late morning, strong and severe storms developed along the front as a lobe of energy rotated into west Texas and forcing from this energy overspread the front. The atmosphere was already unstable and uncapped by this time. In addition, a Mesoscale Convective System in Oklahoma sent an outflow boundary south across the Red River. This outflow boundary moved south of the DFW Metroplex by the late morning hours, and isolated storms began to develop south of the outflow boundary but east of the front. As these storms moved north and crossed the outflow boundary, the low level rotation increased and the storms quickly became tornadic. All of the tornadic storms were tied to this outflow boundary as it retreated north as a warm front.

An EF-3 tornado began in eastern Rockwall County and traveled northeast into Hunt County before lifting. The tornado touched down to the southwest of the intersection of FM 548 and Bent Rd in Rockwall County. The tornado quickly moved into a subdivision and severely damaged or destroyed several homes. The worst of the damage in this subdivision occurred along Laci Ln. Trees and shrubs northeast of these houses by a half mile or so were completely debarked and had no vegetation remaining. The tornado continued northeast and produced damage to homes along Country Manor Rd. There was one house that had a large portion of its roof/top story completely removed. A couple of small barns were also destroyed, one which contained a classic car which ended up blown into the back of a neighbor���s house. The tornado continued northeast where it crossed Hwy 276 and sideswiped a cabinet factory. Part of the outside metal walls were crumbled. There was an incredible amount of industrial debris downstream of this factory north of the highway. The tornado continued northeast and demolished one mobile home and damaged another right at the Rockwall/Hunt County line. In total, 8 homes in Rockwall County were deemed destroyed, 17 sustained major damage, and 8 sustained minor damage. The path length of the tornado in Rockwall County was nearly 2.4 miles, but the total path length was 3.3 miles. Maximum estimated winds were 150 mph and the tornado was approximately 400 yards wide. Three people sustained minor injuries when their doublewide mobile home was struck near the Rockwall/Hunt County line.

A strong EF-2 tornado began in eastern Rockwall County and traveled northeast into Hunt County before lifting. As the tornado crossed into Hunt County, it destroyed one mobile home near the Rockwall/Hunt County Line. The tornado then continued to the northeast where it destroyed the roof of one more home before lifting north of Highway 276. The path length of the tornado in Hunt County was nearly a mile long, but the total path length was 3.3 miles. Maximum estimated winds with the tornado while it was in Hunt County were likely around 130 mph and the tornado was approximately 400 yards wide.

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:15 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:10 UTC and running to 22:58 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Terrell (TRL), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:54 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 2012 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.