EF1 tornado, Enon to Delrose, Texas, October 13, 2014

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

October 13, 2014

Touchdown

4:52 AM CDT (09:52 UTC)

Lifted

5:00 AM CDT (10:00 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

275 yards (251 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Upshur County

Touchdown point

32.768, -95.046

Lift-off point

32.784, -94.948

Record number

1410130352-01

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

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

An upper level trough moved quickly into the Central and Southern Plains providing the necessary lift for scattered strong to severe thunderstorms across Northwest Texas and Western Oklahoma during the evening hours of Sunday, Oct. 12th. At the surface, a warm front was rapidly moving northward across East Texas and North Louisiana with low level moisture returning quickly in the wake of the northward moving warm front. A cold front in association with the upper level trough was rapidly moving eastward through Western Oklahoma and Texas. Overnight across Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas, Northeast Texas and Northwest Louisiana, moderate instability was in place with increasing low and mid-level shear as the upper trough approached from the west. Storms eventually erupted ahead of the cold front across Central Oklahoma and Northern Texas, maturing into a squall line as it approached the region during the predawn hours of Monday, Oct. 13th. As the squall line traversed through the region, widespread wind damage was reported associated with straight line winds. Several short track, intense tornadoes developed along the leading edge of the squall line as well across portions of Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas and Northern Louisiana. The storms finally exited the region during the afternoon hours of Oct. 13th. Post-event Storm Surveys determined that 6 tornadoes occurred with this severe weather outbreak, one of which produced 1 fatality and 4 injuries in Little River County, Arkansas. Another tornado produced widespread damage across Ouachita Parish in Monroe, Louisiana.

An National Weather Storm Survey team determined that the damage in Upshur County, Texas was consistent with that of a tornado. An EF-1 tornado touched down just south of FM 852 near the Bison Road and FM 852 intersection. The tornado moved east, crossing FM. 852 and passing along Armadillo Road north of Lake Gilmer and then crossing Cherokee Trace, reaching Hwy. 271 near Antelope Road before lifting. The tornado caused damage to numerous trees by snapping and/or uprooting them along the path. Some homes sustained significant damage along the path due to fallen trees. Several barns had substantial damage along the path as well. One house suffered significant injuries while a rancher lost two cows as a tree fell on them.

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 08:22 UTC and running to 12:38 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 06:00 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.

Gilmer/Fox_stephens_field (JXI), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:50 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 2014 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

34 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.