EF0 tornado, Howe to Bells, Texas, April 26, 2016

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

April 26, 2016

Touchdown

10:00 PM CDT (03:00 UTC)

Lifted

10:08 PM CDT (03:08 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

5

Property damage

$450,000

County

Grayson County

Touchdown point

33.526, -96.617

Lift-off point

33.543, -96.581

Record number

1604262100-03

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

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

Thunderstorms developed along a dryline over the western and northern counties of the FWD CWA during the late afternoon and evening hours of Tuesday as an upper level disturbance moved overhead. Storms eventually organized into a line during the late evening hours, which moved east across the rest of the region. Damaging winds were the main severe threat that night but three tornadoes occurred in Grayson County.

A National Weather Service damage survey team determined a tornado produced EF-0 and EF-1 damage to several homes, businesses, and one school on the evening of April 26th. The tornado occurred in Howe, just south of the Sherman city limits, beginning on the west side of US 75. The tornado damaged a mobile home business near the Howe High School, where superficial damage was done due to debris flying into and onto the school. The damage to the school was mainly superficial, however. The tornado continued to move northeast and damaged approximately 20 homes, causing widespread roof, fence, and vehicle damage. Five people were injured in this area, but none had life threatening injuries.

Amateur radio spotters observed and reported a tornado which moved from southwest of Bells to just northwest of the Bells High School. This storm produced little damage other than tree damage near Bells. The only damage in town was to a recreational vehicle business near the intersection of US 82 and US 69.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:58 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:32 UTC and running to 05:00 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 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.

Sherman/Denison (GYI), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:02 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 2016 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

35 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.