EF1 tornado, Rio Vista to Grandview Mcelroy Ar, Texas, April 26, 2015

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

April 26, 2015

Touchdown

11:16 PM CDT (04:16 UTC)

Lifted

11:18 PM CDT (04:18 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

32.246, -97.317

Lift-off point

32.232, -97.320

Record number

1504262216-01

54 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 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.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of a tornado east of the city of Rio Vista. This tornado took a 5.4 mile path across Johnson County, ending at nearly the same point as it began. The tornado first occurred just south of Farm to Market Road 916, along County Road 1205. The tornado originally took a northeast track, before turning due north, then back to the west and southwest. Along the way, the tornado caused superficial damage to approximately 20 homes. Numerous trees, barns, and farm buildings were destroyed as the tornado moved along.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of an anticyclonic tornado east of Rio Vista. This tornado occurred as the previous (5.4 mile path) tornado moved in a nearly full circle to the west. This tornado first occurred northeast of the intersection of County Road 1200 and Farm to Market Road 916. This tornado produced very little damage, except for tree lined roads in Johnson County, as it moved from the northwest to south. The anticyclonic tornado was determined through archived radar data of the storm.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of a tornado east of the city of Rio Vista. This tornado occurred mainly over open fields, causing several areas of tree damage. However, one well built home had a large portion of a roof missing.

The last tornado of the night began near the intersection of Johnson County Road 305 and 406, northwest of Grandview. This tornado made a horseshoe path, moving first to the north, and then west and southwest. This tornado caused tree damage along several county roads, and also produced damage to several homes and mobile homes.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:44 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:45 UTC and running to 08:59 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.

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:16 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.