EF0 tornado, Elgin, Texas, May 23, 2017

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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. 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

EF0

Date

May 23, 2017

Touchdown

5:37 PM CDT (22:37 UTC)

Lifted

5:39 PM CDT (22:39 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Bastrop County

Touchdown point

30.395, -97.371

Lift-off point

30.378, -97.348

Record number

1705231637-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Wood driven into the ground in differing directions and in multiple locations.
• Small Farm Shed Completely Destroyed
• Trampoline Wrapped around Picnic Table
• 7 cows, 1 bull, 1 calf ended up near report location. Were picked up by tornado in pasture and moved approx 1600 feet. Only calf was injured, others were dazed.

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

Thunderstorms developed along a cold front. Some of these storms produced large hail and damaging wind gusts.

A NWS storm survey found that a tornado was produced by the bookend vortex |of a bow echo that moved through the city of Elgin on the afternoon|of May 23rd 2017. The tornado began just east of Texas Highway 95|and just north of Roemer Road, where it displaced and flipped a shed |off its foundation. The tornado then caused extensive damage to a|business along Roemer Road. As it continued to the east-southeast,|the tornado ripped the metal roof off a large barn and caused roof|damage to a well-built home adjacent to the barn. In the pasture |adjacent to these structures, there were multiple pieces of splintered |wood that were driven into the ground from the opposite direction from |which the storm came. Several cattle and a bull were reportedly thrown |about 1500 feet from one pasture into another, jumping a couple of fences |in the process. The tornado then completely destroyed an old wooden barn |just north of Roemer Road. At this point, the tornado was approximately |moving along Roemer Road, and caused some minor tree damage. The tornado |then crossed Red Town Road just south of Roemer Road and ended just east |of Red Town Road, where it caused some minor damage to a structure.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:36 UTC and running to 23:58 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 19:59 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.

Austin (EDC), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:55 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

11 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.