EF0 tornado, Rio Vista, Texas, April 26, 2015

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

April 26, 2015

Touchdown

10:03 PM CDT (03:03 UTC)

Lifted

10:06 PM CDT (03:06 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

32.233, -97.507

Lift-off point

32.206, -97.517

Record number

1504262103-01

45 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

• lots of tree damage along this county road.
• trees uprooted in the same general area. winds appeared to be elevated, not surface based

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

Several discrete supercells developed across the region producing hail up to the size of softballs, severe winds, flash flooding and tornadoes. The storms eventually merged into a squall line that moved across the region south of Interstate 20. A total of 16 tornadoes occurred on this day and most of the tornadoes were produced by one supercell. This supercell stalled in southern Johnson County for up to 3 hours and produced 8 tornadoes near the Rio Vista area also with significant flash flooding. At least one of the tornadoes rotated cyclonically. One tornado in Johnson County was rated an EF1 but the other 15 tornadoes were rated EF0s.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of a tornado south and west of the city of Rio Vista. This tornado moved northeast to southwest, in a semicircular pattern. The damage from this tornado was mainly to trees and a few power lines. The tornado did impact an uncompleted housing development, damaging three homes. The damage to homes was limited to roof and shingle damage, only producing the EF-0 rating.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of a tornado west of the city of Rio Vista. This tornado produced EF-0 damage to the west of the city, causing little damage across an open field.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of a tornado which began on the north side of Rio Vista. The tornado first occurred just west of the city limits and moved northeast. The tornado destroyed an abandoned building near the intersection of State Highway 174 and Johnson County Road 1206. As the tornado moved quickly northeast, several mobile homes suffered damage.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of a tornado northwest of the city of Rio Vista. This tornado produced minimal damage to trees across open fields.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:40 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:54 UTC and running to 03:45 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Cleburne (CPT), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:03 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 2015 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

18 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.