EF1 tornado, Broaddus, Texas, April 2, 2017

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 2, 2017

Touchdown

1:56 PM CDT (18:56 UTC)

Lifted

2:06 PM CDT (19:06 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

6.4 miles (10.2 km)

Path width

310 yards (283 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

San Augustine County

Touchdown point

31.270, -94.332

Lift-off point

31.321, -94.242

Record number

1704021256-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by 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.

A strong upper level trough shifted east across Northern Mexico and into the Big Bend area of Southwest Texas during the early morning hours of April 2nd, before lifting northeast into North Texas during the afternoon. Meanwhile, a deepening surface low over North Texas allowed for warm, moist, and unstable air to stream north across East Texas and North Louisiana just south of a warm front as it stalled near the Interstate 20 corridor. Very strong wind shear and steepening lapse rates ahead of the ejecting upper level trough resulted in strong deep layer forcing for widespread strong to severe thunderstorms across East Texas south of Interstate 20, as well as much of Northcentral Louisiana. Numerous reports of wind damage and a few large hail reports were received across these areas, with several tornadoes (some strong) also having touched down across portions of Deep East Texas, Western and Central Louisiana.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum winds estimated between 100-110 mph initially touched down as a waterspout over Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Southwest San Augustine County near the Nacogdoches County line. This waterspout moved ashore at the Jackson Hill Marina on FM 2851 as a tornado, intensifying as it mowed through a grove of trees in front of the marina convenience store. This was where the tornado was the strongest, with numerous trees snapped and uprooted. Security cameras at the Jackson Hill Marina captured this tornado as it moved ashore. This tornado crossed Highway 147 at the intersection of FM 3185 near a cemetery, and remained on the ground as it crossed Highway 83 on the east side of Broaddus. There was where several trees were snapped and uprooted near the Trinity Baptist Church in Broaddus. One very large hardwood tree was uprooted but bore the brunt of the winds, minimizing the roof damage at the church. However, a covered canopy between the new addition of the church and an older building collapsed as winds accelerated between these two buildings. The tornado remained on the ground but weakened as it crossed FM 2558 before lifting on County Road 319 northeast of Broaddus.

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 tornado watch, issued at 15:41 UTC and running to 19:04 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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.

Lufkin/Angelina Co. (LFK), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:57 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 2017 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

22 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.