EF2 tornado, Hayden to Thrall, Texas, February 20, 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 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

February 20, 2017

Touchdown

12:25 AM CST (06:25 UTC)

Lifted

12:33 AM CST (06:33 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

9.4 miles (15.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Williamson County

Touchdown point

30.550, -97.359

Lift-off point

30.631, -97.244

Record number

1702200025-01

51 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 138 mph.

• with Allison Miller of KEYE
• Portion of a church was removed from its foundation.
• . columns bolted and set with concrete
• Power poles snapped at a high school

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.

This tornado was the northern one of a pair on near parallel tracks a few miles south of Hwy 79. It made a zig-zag path as it moved in a generally northeasterly direction. Damage was sporadic, but concentrated when it occurred. The most significant damage was to a metal building system home (DI MBS, DOD 5), at least five other single family homes, and 12 railroad cars that were blown off the tracks east of Thrall. The train cars may have also been affected by strong straight-line winds. There is no estimate of monetary losses.

This tornado was the southern one of a pair on near parallel tracks a few miles south of Hwy 79. It moved toward the north-northeast through the small town of Noack and then turned to the north approximately a mile north-northeast of the town. Damage was sporadic, but concentrated when it occurred. The most significant damage was to a 3-bin grain storage facility where the bins were completely destroyed and swept from their foundations (DI SBO, DOD 8). Additional damage occurred to an extension of Christ Lutheran Church of Noack on FM112. The extension was ripped from the main building where the walls had been bolted to the foundation (DI LRB, DOD 6). There is no estimate of monetary losses.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:23 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:07 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 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 Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:23 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

1 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.