EF2 tornado, Copeville to Pike, Texas, December 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 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 26, 2015

Touchdown

7:09 PM CST (01:09 UTC)

Lifted

7:15 PM CST (01:15 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.5 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

119

Property damage

$1.4 million

County

Collin County

Touchdown point

33.061, -96.434

Lift-off point

33.132, -96.402

Record number

1512261909-01

70 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 155 mph.

• small brick building at base of water tower. roof lifted but walls still standing.
• Also note roof damage but small porch is intact.
• All walls standing but entire roof collapsed.
• debris blown across CR 549

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

A potent storm system brought deadly tornadoes and severe weather to North Texas on the 26th followed by waves of heavy rainfall that resulted in significant flooding across parts of North and Central Texas. Twelve tornadoes were confirmed on the afternoon and evening of the 26th, killing 13 and injuring over 300. The strongest tornado was an EF-4 that struck the Garland and Rowlett areas of Dallas and Rockwall County and where most of the fatalities occurred. Then the waves of heavy rain persisted through the night of the 27th until the upper level low moved past the region. The heaviest rainfall and thus most significant flooding was along and east of Interstate 35 where an average of 3-6+ of rain fell.

A National Weather Service damage survey team found damage consistent with an EF-2 tornado in and near Copeville. The damage began in a residential area, damaging over 30 homes. The strongest part of the storm was along State Highway 78, where several businesses were destroyed, including a gas station / convenience store at SH 78 and FM 1778, where two people were killed. The tornado had a serpentine path, going on both sides of SH 78, before lifting in an open field about halfway between Copeville and Farmersville.

The National Weather Service damage survey crew found damage that began near U.S 380 and traveled north, just on the northwest side of Farmersville. Several homes, including six mobile homes in close proximity, were either damaged or destroyed.

A National Weather Service damage survey crew found evidence of an EF-1 tornado for the last tornado of 2015. This tornado produced a fairly wide, serpentine path as it moved through northeastern Collin County. As the tornado was ending, it hit a cluster of mobile homes to the northeast of Blue Ridge, killing a two day old baby.

The deaths

3 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

30 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:39 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:36 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:47 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), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:09 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

12 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.