EF3 tornado, Northfield to Turkey, Texas, May 23, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 23, 2016

Touchdown

9:30 PM CDT (02:30 UTC)

Lifted

10:06 PM CDT (03:06 UTC)

On the ground

36 minutes

Path length

10.0 miles (16.1 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

Counties

Hall and Motley counties

Touchdown point

34.307, -100.714

Lift-off point

34.394, -100.854

Record number

1605232030-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LUB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 138 mph.

• looking approximately 1 mile north from this location at steel electrical pylons (poles)
• looking about 1/2 mile north east of this location. three middle poles are bent over toward the north. Span is close to 1/2 mile indicating width of strong winds.
• looking about three quarter of a mile east of this location what appears to be a a tree that is blown over and uprooted
• looking Northeast about three quarters of a mile from this location trees appear to be uprooted or knocked over

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

A second consecutive afternoon and evening of scattered thunderstorms developed along an active dryline. Thunderstorms initially developed across the eastern South Plains and quickly became severe under an extremely unstable atmosphere. Storms slowly moved into the Rolling Plains with Hall County sustaining much of the damage reported on the evening of the 23rd. A significant tornado was observed in Motley and Hall Counties from 2030 CST to 2106 CST associated with a slow moving thunderstorm. This half mile wide EF3 tornado damaged steel pylons supporting electric lines in Hall County. The tornado had an erratic motion moving from the southeast to northwest before dissipating a few miles east of Turkey (Hall County).

A large multi-vortex tornado developed in far north-central Motley County at 2033 CST. This tornado was nearly stationary at first, before drifting slowly north followed by an abrupt acceleration to the northwest into Hall County (continued below). Several storm spotters observed this tornado and debris cloud as it crossed Farm-to-Market Road 656. This tornado tracked over open ranch and canyon lands resulting in very few damage indicators. A limited road network and flooded roads prevented a post-storm ground survey conducted by National Weather Service meteorologists from assessing damage. Therefore, the tornado was given a rating of EF-unknown while in Motley County.

This is the continuation path of the tornado that began in northern Motley County. A significant tornado tracked northwest across rural southwest Hall County before narrowing and later dissipating about 1.5 miles east of Turkey at 2106 CST. Storm spotters indicated this large tornado was rain wrapped as it approached Turkey.||A NWS storm damage survey rated this tornado as EF-3. Although damage indicators were sparse in this part of Hall County, the wind estimate was derived from several steel pylons supporting electrical lines that were bent to the ground from winds estimated in the range of 135 to 140 mph. Additionally, there were trees blown over and uprooted as viewed from a distance along the nearest roadway. However, the survey team was unable to survey this damage due to flooded roads and a limited road network.||The development of this tornado and its unusual northwest motion were likely the result of a northward-moving outflow boundary tied to a left moving supercell that earlier impacted Matador (Motley County). Radar data indicate tornadogenesis occurred shortly after this outflow boundary impinged on the supercell.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:23 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:33 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Childress Municipal (CDS), 46 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:30 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

4 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.