EF1 tornado, Wimberley to Neiderwald, Texas, February 19, 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

February 19, 2017

Touchdown

11:26 PM CST (05:26 UTC)

Lifted

11:35 PM CST (05:35 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

9.8 miles (15.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hays County

Touchdown point

29.916, -98.048

Lift-off point

29.964, -97.899

Record number

1702192326-01

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Straight line. Damage all flattened to the north and northeast.
• Straight line. Damage all flattened to the north and northeast. Tin also peeled back off nearby barn.
• Two large trees were snapped and twisted/sheared towards the south and southwest.
• Partially collapsed wall, shifted metal container. Wall bent inward. Roof purlins buckled. Roofing uplifted. Interior ceiling partially failed.

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

An upper level trough pushed a cold front into a warm, moist airmass over South Central Texas. Thunderstorms developed ahead of the front and some produced tornadoes and damaging wind gusts.

The tornado began at the intersection of RR12 and Hugo Rd. where some trees were snapped and a small business had considerable structural damage (DI MBS, DOD 5). The tornado traveled northeastward and likely traversed a large area of land that was inaccessible until reaching Hilliard Rd. and a neighborhood along Thousand Oaks Loop. There was a wide area of considerable tree damage, including a tree uprooted and dropped onto a vehicle (DI TH, DOD 4). The tornado then turned to the north-northeast and crossed the Blanco River before ending near the Kyle Cemetery on Old Stagecoach Rd. At this point, damage became much less significant and sporadic moving to the east toward I-35. There is no estimate of monetary damages.

A tornado developed northwest of Niederwald. Damage in this area included a destroyed aluminum barn structure (DI SBO, DOD 6), car port damage, and a few trees with large limbs snapped. As the tornado moved to the northeast it crossed into Travis County approximately 1.7 miles north-northwest of Niederwald. It continued for another 2.4 miles into the Mustang Ridge area. There is no estimate of monetary damages.

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 05:15 UTC and running to 08:00 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 00:45 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.

San Marcos (Awos) (HYI), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:24 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

6 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.