EF1 tornado, Canadian Hemphill Ar, Texas, May 27, 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

May 27, 2015

Touchdown

6:02 PM CDT (23:02 UTC)

Lifted

6:03 PM CDT (23:03 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hemphill County

Touchdown point

35.940, -100.435

Lift-off point

35.953, -100.423

Record number

1505271702-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AMA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• tree snapped - direction of damage is SSW. Far northern edge of damage path.
• western or northwestern edge of damage
• sheetmetal. likely the center point of path
• another nw point with tree damage on the edge

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

One of the more active severe weather days of the spring season brought large hail, bigger than baseballs in some cases, flooding, and tornadoes to the Texas Panhandle. One persistent intense supercell moved slowly across Hemphill County near Canadian and produced three tornadoes, one of which caused three injuries and was rated EF-2. Flooding from this slow moving storm closed Highway 83 north of Canadian during the evening. More flooding occurred further south in Armstrong County which caused road closures.

This was the first of two tornadoes that hit the same area within minutes. These tornadoes were documented on video within minutes of each other. It is nearly impossible to determine which tornado cause what damage but a swath of damage was noted, likely with some caused by each touchdown.

This tornado was reported by multiple storm chasers and also touched down within the damage path of the first EF-2 tornado. Eyewitness reports indicate that this tornado stayed over open fields and cause no additional damage.

This was the second of two tornadoes that hit the same area. These tornadoes were documented on video touching down within minutes of each other. It is nearly impossible to determine which tornado caused what damage but a swath of EF-1 damage was noted, likely with some caused by each touchdown. Estimated peak wind was 100 mph.

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

31 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:31 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:46 UTC and running to 06:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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.

Canadian (HHF), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:00 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.