Unrated tornado, Spur Muni Arpt to Spur, Texas, March 28, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

March 28, 2017

Touchdown

5:14 PM CDT (22:14 UTC)

Lifted

5:16 PM CDT (22:16 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Dickens County

Touchdown point

33.464, -100.999

Lift-off point

33.479, -100.998

Record number

1703281614-01

Rich Gulf moisture over the South Plains early this morning and a vigorous upper low culminated in severe thunderstorm development by late morning across the South Plains. A triple point (intersection of a surface low, warm front and dryline) developed very near Lubbock before noon and proceeded east while serving to focus strong low level wind shear. This wind shear along with low cloud bases allowed for several storms to acquire low level rotation and produce tornadoes and large hail at times. Fortunately, of the seven tornadoes that were confirmed by NWS Lubbock, only one produced damage and was rated EF1 after striking the Pitchfork Ranch (far eastern Dickens County). These storms also produced beneficial heavy rains and some minor flooding from the eastern South Plains throughout the Rolling Plains.

A storm chaser documented a tornado that developed near County Road 405 and Farm-to-Market Road 2794 in far western Dickens County. Despite crossing a road with utility lines, video indicated no apparent damage from this tornado.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:52 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:41 UTC and running to 03:36 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 20:07 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.

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:12 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

15 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.