EF1 tornado, Tenneryville to Judson, Texas, March 29, 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

March 29, 2017

Touchdown

5:38 AM CDT (10:38 UTC)

Lifted

5:49 AM CDT (10:49 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

6.0 miles (9.6 km)

Path width

480 yards (439 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

County

Gregg County

Touchdown point

32.528, -94.798

Lift-off point

32.573, -94.710

Record number

1703290438-01

56 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• 2 trees uproots pointed different directions.
• landed on the back side of the house.
• several large branches down on roofs.

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

A squall line which originally developed over West Texas during the late morning and early afternoon hours on March 28th ahead of a closed low over Central New Mexico, marched east across much of Texas during the afternoon and evening hours along the eastward advancing dryline, producing widespread reports of wind damage and large hail over these areas. These storms marched east into East Texas shortly after 4 am on March 29th, but began to weaken with the loss of instability, with wind gusts of 35 to 45 mph common before they pushed into Western Louisiana and Southwest Arkansas shortly after daybreak. These winds did result in some large branches being downed north of Marshall, with even an isolated tornado having touched down along the north side of Longview. These storms diminished during the late morning hours across SouthCentral Arkansas and Northcentral Louisiana, leaving behind a mesoscale boundary which focused additional scattered shower and thunderstorm development during the late afternoon hours with increased heating over these areas.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated winds of 100-110 mph touched down along Reel Road just north of West Loop 281, primarily snapping and uprooting trees. A tree did fall on the back side of one house at the corner of Reel Road and Buckner Street, damaging the house. Several homes had roof damage in the Hobson Road area, and several fences were blown over as well. The cross at the Grace Crossing United Methodist Church was leaning significantly and a light pole was also bent in this area. The tornado partially lifted the roof at the Judson Road Animal Clinic. One home and two cars were crushed by trees along Mary Ellen Drive. Another home along Airline Road lost several shingles as well as several trees on the property were snapped or uprooted. The tornado finally lifted just east of Sam Page Road.

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.

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 05:57 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 Shreveport radar (KSHV), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:39 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

17 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.