EF0 tornado, Morita to South Haven, Texas, May 22, 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

May 22, 2016

Touchdown

7:17 PM CDT (00:17 UTC)

Lifted

7:28 PM CDT (00:28 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Howard County

Touchdown point

32.108, -101.480

Lift-off point

32.107, -101.519

Record number

1605221817-01

66 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 Howard County and produced a tornado near Big Spring. This tornado developed at around 6:51 pm CDT, approximately three miles south of the interstate, close to Farm-to-Market Road 818. This tornado was anticyclonic and moved slowly east and then northeast. With the help of radar imagery, it is estimated that the tornado lasted 8 minutes, while traveling a path just short of 2 miles. With the tornado remaining over open fields, the assessment team rated the tornado as an EF0. The width was estimated at 100 yards.

A thunderstorm moved across Howard County and produced a tornado near Lees, TX. This tornado began at approximately 7:17 pm CDT just over 2.5 miles north northeast of Lees. The tornado traveled a 2.3 mile path, moving westward. The tornado dissipated approximately four miles northwest of Lees at 7:28 pm CDT. Without damage indicators, the tornado is rated as an EF-0 with an estimated width of 100 yards.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:14 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:49 UTC and running to 03:00 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.

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:16 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.