Unrated tornado, Dickens to Afton, 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

6:43 PM CDT (23:43 UTC)

Lifted

6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Dickens County

Touchdown point

33.648, -100.565

Lift-off point

33.676, -100.569

Record number

1703281743-01

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.

Meteorologists with NWS Lubbock and the Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet conducted a storm damage survey in far east-central Dickens County during the morning of March 29. This team surveyed tornado damage at the Pitchfork Ranch located about 11 miles west of Guthrie, TX along U.S. Highway 82.||The most significant damage observed at the Pitchfork Ranch consisted of about 300 square feet of metal roofing removed from a well-constructed building. Many of the underlying support trusses to the roof were also separated from the building. Various trees were blown over and strewn about. A large twin gravity box was also toppled. The damage to the roof was consistent with maximum winds of around 100 miles per hour. Debris in the area revealed a convergent pattern indicative of a tornado, which was also supported by strong rotation in the area as observed by radar.||Available damage indicators surrounding the Pitchfork Ranch were very sparse and an accurate assessment of the duration and path of this EF-1 tornado was not feasible.

Storm chasers observed a tornado develop north of U.S. Highway 82 in far eastern Dickens County. This tornado produced no known damage as it remained over open land.

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 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 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.

Childress Municipal (CDS), 90 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:42 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.