EF1 tornado, Laketon to Gageby, Texas, February 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 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

February 3, 2012

Touchdown

12:42 AM CST (06:42 UTC)

Lifted

1:03 AM CST (07:03 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

12.7 miles (20.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

Counties

Gray, Roberts and Hemphill counties

Touchdown point

35.550, -100.700

Lift-off point

35.650, -100.510

Record number

1202030042-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AMA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TORNADO TRACK...THERE WAS A HORSE BARN ROOF\nDAMAGED
• A CENTER PIVOT IRRIGATION SYSTEM WAS TWISTED AND OVERTURNED.

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

Severe thunderstorms develop across most of the central and eastern Texas Panhandle during the evening hours through shortly after midnight producing large hail and thunderstorm wind gust. Also, a tornado touched down shortly after midnight over the east central Texas Panhandle causing minor damage, however no injuries or fatalities were reported.

This is the first segment of a tornado which formed ten miles south southwest of Miami just north of Texas State Highway 152 and traveled northeastward for about eight miles before exiting Gray county about five and a half miles north northeast of Laketon at 0055CST. While in Gray county, the tornado was rated an EF1. The tornado had a maximum width of one hundred yards. At he beginning of the tornado track in Gray county, there was a horse barn damaged as well as a center pivot irrigation system overturned. Then two miles from about where the tornado touched down to the northeast, also in Gray county, two single power poles were snapped at the base. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities.

This is the second segment of a tornado which formed ten miles south southwest of Miami just north of Texas State Highway 152 in Gray county at 0042CST. The tornado exited Gray county and entered into Roberts county at 0055CST about six miles south southeast of Miami Texas in Roberts county and exited Roberts county at 0100CST about six and a half miles south of Lora Texas, which is located on the Roberts county and Hemphill county line. The tornado traveled northeastward for about two and a half miles. The tornado was rated an EF0 as there was no report of damage in Roberts county. The tornado had a maximum width of one hundred yards. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities.

This is the third and final segment of a tornado which formed ten miles south southwest of Miami just north of Texas State Highway 152 in Gray county at 0042CST. The tornado exited Roberts county and entered into Hemphill county at 0100CST about twelve miles west of Gageby Texas. The tornado remained on the ground for about two miles before dissipating at 0103CST about ten miles west northwest of Gageby Texas in Hemphill county. The tornado was rated an EF0 as there was no report of damage in Hemphill county. The tornado had a maximum width of one hundred yards. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:38 UTC and running to 08:32 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:49 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 Amarillo radar (KAMA), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:41 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

2 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.