EF0 tornado, Paducah Richards Arp to Paducah, Texas, May 30, 2012

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

May 30, 2012

Touchdown

5:59 PM CDT (22:59 UTC)

Lifted

6:02 PM CDT (23:02 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cottle County

Touchdown point

34.001, -100.283

Lift-off point

33.996, -100.286

Record number

1205301659-01

20 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LUB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 112 mph.

• metal building door failure.
• inward collapse of overhead door.
• car port or dog kennel roof lifted and thrown to west.
• grass layed over to southwest at same location

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

Very strong instability and ample wind shear created a volatile airmass in the eastern Panhandle and Rolling Plains on the afternoon and evening of the 30th. A weak surface low moved into the northeast South Plains early in the afternoon and enhanced lift along a sharp dryline and residual outflow boundary. By mid-afternoon, a pair of thunderstorms erupted in Hall and Motley Counties and quickly became supercells while moving to the east and southeast. These storms produced very large and even giant hail at times and were accompanied by intense inflow and outflow wind gusts at or above 60 mph.||The second of these supercells produced several gustnadoes and at least four weak, non-mesocyclonic tornadoes under its flanking line as it moved through central Cottle County. However, all of the damage in and around the Paducah area was attributed to ferocious winds in the rear flank downdraft (RFD) of this supercell. Although NWS radars from both Lubbock, TX and Frederick, OK indicated a high probability of a significant tornado in far eastern Cottle County from this same storm, a NWS storm survey found no such evidence despite a large tornado having occurred a short while later in nearby western Foard County.||By early evening, a third supercell developed northwest of Paducah and tracked south-southeast into King County. This storm produced a weak tornado about nine miles west of Paducah that moved over open land before crossing Highway 70 and dissipating. While in King County, this supercell produced scattered to widespread structural and tree damage in Guthrie from intense RFD winds estimated to be at least 80 mph.

An off-duty NWS employee observed a non-mesocyclonic tornado attached to the flanking line of a supercell. The tornado was a cylindrical column of dirt and moved slowly SSW over an open field causing no damage.

An off-duty NWS employee observed a second non-mesocyclonic tornado under the flanking line of a supercell. The tornado was a cylindrical column of dirt and moved slowly SSW over an open field causing no damage.

An off-duty NWS employee observed a third non-mesocyclonic tornado attached to the flanking line of a supercell. The tornado was a cylindrical column of dirt and moved slowly south over an open field causing no damage.

Multiple storm chasers including two off-duty NWS employees observed a non-mesocyclonic rope tornado about four miles south-southeast of Paducah. The tornado remained over open land and caused no known damage.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:35 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:38 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Childress Municipal (CDS), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:00 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

12 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.