EF3 tornado, Sardis to Desoto, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

December 26, 2015

Touchdown

6:01 PM CST (00:01 UTC)

Lifted

6:13 PM CST (00:13 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

8.5 miles (13.7 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

46

Property damage

$9.7 million

Counties

Ellis and Dallas counties

Touchdown point

32.462, -96.909

Lift-off point

32.570, -96.838

Record number

1512261801-01

55 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 160 mph.

• Outbuilding completely destroyed
• south winds blew out garage, caused partial second story collapse
• unsure if two story home... home was built to code per Tim Marshall. possible 4
• three exterior walls found collapsed (one likely as winds channeled through previously collapsed wall), wall straight nailed into foundation

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.

This tornado produced a long and narrow damage path from just northeast of the Mid-Way Regional airport near Midlothian to the Ellis County line. The tornado then continued into Dallas County. Sixty-seven single family homes were affected, with 23 of these being completely destroyed. The strongest portion of the tornado occurred near the Ellis / Dallas County line, with EF3 damage observed in both counties.

The Midlothian / Ovilla / Glenn Heights tornado began near Midlothian, before ending on the city border of DeSoto and Glenn Heights. In Dallas County, the tornado damaged approximately 35 homes, along with an additional 10 mobile homes. The strongest portion of the tornado occurred near the Ellis / Dallas County line, with EF3 damage observed in both counties.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:28 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:01 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.