EF2 tornado, Thedford to Lindale, Texas, December 12, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

December 12, 2015

Touchdown

2:25 PM CST (20:25 UTC)

Lifted

2:28 PM CST (20:28 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Smith County

Touchdown point

32.498, -95.399

Lift-off point

32.523, -95.389

Record number

1512121425-01

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 EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

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

A strong upper level trough moved into the Central and Southern Plains during the morning and afternoon hours of December 12th. This trough ejected into the plains with a slight negative tilt which was indicative of strong jet dynamics in association with this trough. Likewise, low level and deep level shear was quite strong with this trough across Northeast Texas during the late afternoon and evening hours of the 12th as well as the morning hours of the 13th. While instability was very weak, the strong shear made up for the development of strong to severe thunderstorms, some of which produced tornadoes across Northeast Texas. Training of storm echoes also occurred which resulted in widespread flash flooding across the region as well.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team concluded that the damage on the east side of Lindale, Texas was consistent with that of an EF-2 Tornado with wind speeds estimated between 110 and 120 mph. Approximately 50 homes sustained damage either from fallen trees or from the tornado itself with 2 homes suffering major damage. The worst of the damage was along CR 4191 where the tornado damaged homes on or near Brownwood Circle, Bentwood Circle, Braewood Circle, Greenwood Circle and Edgewood Circle. The tornado continued in a north northeast direction crossing CR. 431 and FM. 16 before lifting near CR. 4213. Numerous trees were either uprooted or snapped along the path of this tornado as well. A monetary amount of damage was not available for this publication.

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.

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 19:36 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.

Tyler/Pounds Field (TYR), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:25 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

7 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.