EF2 tornado, Scottsville to Leigh, Texas, January 21, 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

January 21, 2017

Touchdown

4:18 PM CST (22:18 UTC)

Lifted

4:35 PM CST (22:35 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

6.9 miles (11.2 km)

Path width

230 yards (210 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

32.520, -94.253

Lift-off point

32.610, -94.200

Record number

1701211618-01

59 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 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 low pressure system emerged out across the Southern Plains during the morning and afternoon hours of January 21st. Ahead of this system, unseasonably warm, humid, and unstable air spread northward across much of the Ark-La-Tex from the Gulf of Mexico in advance of this system and associated Pacific cold front. A surface low pressure system also developed along the advancing cold front, with low level winds backing more southeast ahead of the upper level low. Coupled with strong wind shear and instability, scattered severe supercell thunderstorms rapidly developed during the mid and late afternoon hours across portions of extreme Eastern Texas, Southern Arkansas, and Northern Louisiana. The considerable wind shear contributed to rotating updrafts, such that twelve tornadoes touched down across the aforementioned areas. Instances of large hail was also reported with these supercells, given the very cold temperatures aloft. These severe thunderstorms exited the region during the mid evening hours into the Ark-La-Miss region where additional tornadoes and instances of severe thunderstorm damage was reported.

An EF-2 tornado with winds estimated near 120 mph touched down along Highway 80 near Scottsville, snapping and uprooting numerous trees and downing power lines along its track as it crossed Farm-To-Market Road 1998. Much of the tornado's destructive damage occurred along Trammel Lane (Haggerty Road) where trees were snapped/downed on several homes. One home had much of its roof removed, with a small mobile home nearby completely blown away. The tornado continued north northeast along Harkins Lane where more trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado finally lifted on Cowpen Road.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:10 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:41 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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

Marshall (ASL), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:17 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

59 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.