EF1 tornado, Spur to Spur Muni Arpt, Texas, May 23, 2013

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

May 23, 2013

Touchdown

4:15 PM CDT (21:15 UTC)

Lifted

4:25 PM CDT (21:25 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Dickens County

Touchdown point

33.480, -100.660

Lift-off point

33.453, -100.650

Record number

1305231515-01

Driven southwest by outflow from a complex of thunderstorms in Oklahoma early this morning, a frontal boundary moved into the northeast South Plains and northern Rolling Plains by noon ahead of very moist easterly winds. Although a weak upper ridge was in place over West Texas, a subtropical jet streak flowing over the region assisted in severe thunderstorm development. Strong instability combined with upslope flow and the frontal boundary allowed a supercell storm to erupt early this afternoon in central Floyd County before moving slowly south accompanied by multiple landspout tornadoes, large hail and heavy rain. As this supercell collapsed near Cone, a haboob raced south and west with winds up to 77 mph resulting in minor damage to trees and structures in Crosbyton. Thereafter, a second supercell storm developed to the east in central Dickens County which also proceeded to move south. While east of Spur, this supercell produced an EF-1 tornado over ranch land that damaged some trees. As this storm's mesocyclone continued southward, intense and prolonged rear flank downdraft winds measured as high as 92 mph created scattered structural damage in Girard and Jayton. Torrential rains were measured as high as 4.3 inches by a NWS COOP observer in Jayton; however, flash flooding was not reported. Fortunately, no injuries occurred with any of these storms. Total property losses could exceed $250,000.

A NWS aerial storm survey discovered evidence of a tornado debris pattern in open ranch land in far southeast Dickens County. Damage to trees in this area displayed a hallmark convergent pattern and correlated well with a tight gate-to-gate rotation couplet in the area as observed by Doppler radar. The path length and width are crude estimates given generally sparse damage indicators throughout the path of this tornado. Damage to some trees was deemed sufficiently strong to warrant an EF-1 rating.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:38 UTC and running to 00:16 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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.

Snyder (SNK), 90 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:15 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 2013 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.