EF1 tornado, Minden to Pinehill, Texas, May 11, 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

May 11, 2017

Touchdown

7:03 PM CDT (00:03 UTC)

Lifted

7:16 PM CDT (00:16 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.5 km)

Path width

280 yards (256 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Rusk County

Touchdown point

32.018, -94.693

Lift-off point

32.087, -94.654

Record number

1705111803-01

21 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.

• trampoline on roof of outbuilding. several trees snapped.
• several snapped trees between the two points.
• several trees snapped and uprooted.
• several trees snapped on both sides of the road.

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

Showers and thunderstorms developed over Eastcentral Texas and Southeast Oklahoma during the afternoon hours of May 11th, ahead of a positive tilt upper trough that shifted east across Northern Oklahoma and Southern Kansas. The dryline managed to mix east to near the I-35 corridor by late afternoon, before a cold front associated with the upper trough overtook the dryline and shifted southeast into Southeast Oklahoma an extreme Northeast Texas late. The air mass ahead of the front became moderately unstable by mid to late afternoon, with upper forcing ahead of the trough contributing to an increase in strong to severe thunderstorms across much of East Texas and North Louisiana. Damaging winds and hail were common with the stronger storms, with even isolated tornadoes also spawned across portions of East Texas and Northern Caddo Parish in Northwest Louisiana. These storms weakened by late evening with the loss of instability.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated winds between 100-110 mph touched down along Farm to Market Road 1798 East just east of Farm to Market Road 95. This tornado appeared to be skimming the treetops until it touched down along County Road 3125 South, snapping and uprooting trees. Another area of more focused damage was along County Road 363 South and County Road 364 South, where several more trees were snapped or uprooted. At least two of these trees fell on a house and outbuilding, causing moderate damage. The tornado lifted shortly beyond County Road 364 South.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:46 UTC and running to 05:00 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Henderson (RFI), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:05 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

10 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.