EF1 tornado, Elysian Flds to Lotta, Texas, April 29, 2016

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

April 29, 2016

Touchdown

10:21 PM CDT (03:21 UTC)

Lifted

10:33 PM CDT (03:33 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

5.6 miles (9.0 km)

Path width

820 yards (750 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

32.349, -94.263

Lift-off point

32.410, -94.200

Record number

1604292121-01

76 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

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

After a brief respite from severe thunderstorms during the predawn hours on April 29th, additional strong to severe thunderstorms developed from the late morning hours through much of the afternoon and evening on April 29th, and lingered through the early morning hours on April 30th. These storms developed along and south of a warm front which lifted into Southeast Oklahoma and the northern sections of Southwest Arkansas, in a warm, moist, and unstable air mass ahead of a series of upper level disturbances that approached the region from the west. Large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes were the result over East Texas by early afternoon, with these severe thunderstorms spreading east into Northern Louisiana and Southwest Arkansas during the late afternoon through the overnight hours. A total of 10 tornadoes touched down across East Texas and Southwest Arkansas, which included a 27 mile long track tornado which touched down near Lindale, Texas in Smith County and remained on the ground before lifting northwest of the community of Bettie in Upshur County. Widespread flash flooding also developed over extreme Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas from late morning through the afternoon on the 29th in response to showers and thunderstorms containing heavy rainfall which moved repeatedly over the same areas. The flash flooding spread across much of East Texas, extreme Northwest Louisiana, and the remainder of Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon through the overnight hours, flooding/washing away numerous roads with water entering homes as well. The severe weather and flash flooding diminished around daybreak on April 30th as the showers and thunderstorms weakened and pushed east of the area.

An EF-1 tornado with estimated winds around 95 mph touched down just south of County Road 1311, where it twisted and uprooted numerous trees. It continued north-northeast and passed just east of County Road 1320, where it began to move more northeast parallel with Caney Creek and lifted just west of County Road 1207. All along its path, the tornado twisted several tree trunks, knocked over numerous trees, and uprooted many more.

An EF-1 tornado with winds estimated around 105 mph touched down along and east of County Road 2705 and just north of Farm To Market Road 134, where it uprooted several trees. It traveled north-northeast where it severely damaged two mobile homes along Bennett Road off of County Road 2705. The tornado continued north-northeast resulting in scattered tree and power line damage along Farm To Market Road 9. Additional trees were snapped and uprooted along Farm To Market Road 1999 before the tornado lifted.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:59 UTC and running to 10:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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.

Marshall (ASL), 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), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:19 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

15 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.