EF1 tornado, Mt Enterprise to Shiloh, Texas, January 25, 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

January 25, 2012

Touchdown

10:32 AM CST (16:32 UTC)

Lifted

10:34 AM CST (16:34 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.3 km)

Path width

175 yards (160 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$100,000

County

Rusk County

Touchdown point

31.912, -94.692

Lift-off point

31.922, -94.670

Record number

1201251032-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0.

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

A vigorous upper level storm system moved out of west Texas and into central Texas during the morning of January 25th. An area of low pressure at the surface moved out of extreme southern Texas and into east central Texas during the late morning and afternoon hours. A warm front which was just off the southeast Texas/southwest Louisiana coast on the 24th, moved north during the morning and took a position along or just south of the interstate 20 corridor of northeast Texas and northern Louisiana. A moderately unstable airmass was noted in the warm sector south of the warm front with dewpoints in the middle 60s. A very strong low level and deep layer shear storm environment developed across the region and the result was strong to severe thunderstorms, some of which produced isolated tornadoes across the region.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Rusk County in the town of Mt. Enterprise and found evidence of an EF1 tornado. The tornado first touched down southwest of town along CR 3207 south of Gatlin Cemetery Road where several large trees were snapped and uprooted. One large tree fell onto a house causing significant roof damage. The tornado continued east northeast paralleling Henderson Street where a carport was torn off of a house with some of the debris striking and injuring a person standing outside the home. Several other trees were snapped an uprooted along Henderson Street and CR 3204. The tornado crossed HWY 259 where a portion of a roof was blown off a small retail building and across the street into the parking lot of a gas station and fast food restaurant. The tornado continued east northeast along Angelina street uprooting and snapping trees as well as blowing shingles off of houses. The tornado crossed HWY 84 west of CR 3198 and lifted just west of CR 3195. Maximum winds are estimated at 85-95 mph.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Rusk and Panola Counties in Northeast Texas and discovered that observed damage resulted from an EF0 tornado. The tornado first touched down along Hwy. 315, 11 miles northeast of Mt. Enterprise, Texas where a few trees were snapped. The tornado continued east northeast crossing CR 164 whee several trees were snapped or uprooted including one next to a home across CR 164. The tornado then crossed into Panola County, Texas.

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 tornado watch, issued at 13:56 UTC and running to 19:08 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:34 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

24 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.