EF2 tornado, Lees to Garden City, Texas, May 22, 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 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

May 22, 2016

Touchdown

7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)

Lifted

8:07 PM CDT (01:07 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Glasscock County

Touchdown point

32.039, -101.528

Lift-off point

32.009, -101.490

Record number

1605221855-01

82 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MAF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 152 mph.

• car moved west several feet
• Reinforced roofing. Lag bolts on foundation.
• Car thrown 100 yards from house.
• 640 type pump jack overturned - wind estimated near 160 mph.

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

West Texas was under the backside of a ridge with a dryline across the area which provided lift. Good instability, moisture convergence, and high convective available potential energy was present along and to the east of the dryline. Wind shear was also high over the area, and a low level jet of high winds allowed for storms to continue into the late evening hours. These conditions contributed to thunderstorms that produced large hail, strong wind, flash flooding, and tornadoes across the Permian Basin.

A thunderstorm moved across Glasscock County and produced a tornado near Lees, TX. This tornado developed at 7:55 pm CDT, approximately four miles southwest of Lees, north of Hillger Road. The tornado, estimated at 200 yards wide, snapped 14 power poles along Hillger Road as it moved slowly southeast. With the poles being snapped approximately five feet off the ground, wind speeds were estimated at about 115 mph, indicating a lower-end EF-2 tornado intensity. There was also a nearby metal building just south of Hillger Road which sustained a loss of metal roof panels due to the tornado. Wind speeds at this location were estimated at 90-100 mph, indicating EF-1 intensity. As it weakened in intensity, this slow moving tornado made an abrupt turn to the northeast and dissipated at 8:07 pm CDT near the intersection of Hillger Road and Ranch Road 33. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate.

A thunderstorm moved across Glasscock County and produced a tornado near Garden City. This tornado developed just west of Ranch Road 33, four miles north northwest of Garden City around 8:42 pm CDT. The tornado moved southward, knocking over a 640 type pump jack located approximately two and a quarter miles north of Garden City. This type of occurrence is associated with wind speeds in the 140-160 mph range. Thus, the tornado has been rated as briefly reaching EF-3 intensity. Broken tree limbs were observed by the assessment team two miles north of Garden City, just west of Ranch Road 33. This damage indicator suggested the tornado had weakened to EF-1 intensity at that point. This weakening trend coincided with the tornado taking a more southeast track as it crossed Ranch Road 33. The tornado dissipated at 8:54 pm CDT, two miles north of Garden City. In total, the tornado traveled a 3.7 mile path and had an estimated width of 200 yards. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:41 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:55 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:36 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.

Big_spring (BPG), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:56 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

25 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.