EF2 tornado, College Hill to Bethlehem, Texas, January 21, 2018

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

January 21, 2018

Touchdown

9:26 PM CST (03:26 UTC)

Lifted

9:35 PM CST (03:35 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

7.1 miles (11.4 km)

Path width

560 yards (512 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.5 million

County

Bowie County

Touchdown point

33.447, -94.648

Lift-off point

33.527, -94.571

Record number

1801212126-01

53 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 132 mph.

• snapped trees on property.
• tree on roof did the most damage
• 8 of 9 chicken houses destroyed
• one snapped trees, with several trees with branches snapped too.

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

A deep upper level trough moved out of the Inter Mountain West and into the Southern Plains on January 21st. This trough allowed for the return of much warmer temperatures and a return of Gulf of Mexico moisture, replacing a cold continental arctic air mass the Southern Plains had been under the influence of the week before. By afternoon, dewpoints were in the lower 60s as far north as the Middle Red River Valley of Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas. This yielded CAPE values around 500 J/KG but very strong Deep Layer Shear was present along with strong low level directional shear. Storms ignited during the late afternoon and early evening hours of January 21st across Northern Texas and Southern Oklahoma along and just ahead of a dryline. Later in the evening, low level directional shear continued to increase and therefore, storms took on the form of supercells. Some of these storms produced large hail and damaging wind gusts. One long track supercell resulted in a tornado which did damage across portions of Bowie County Texas before crossing the Red River and continuing into Little River County Arkansas. The Pacific cold front in association with the upper level trough eventually caught up with the dryline moving into Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma during the overnight hours of January 21st and into the predawn hours of January 22nd, but this broken line of thunderstorms was not responsible for any additional wind damage, hail, or tornadoes across Northeast Texas.

An EF-2 tornado with maximum estimated winds around 125 mph touched down along Highway 259 just southwest of Dekalb and tracked northeast across the intersection of County Road 4231 and Farm to Market Road 44. Here, it caused significant damage to a well constructed two-story home shifting it off its foundation, and significantly damaging eight chicken houses, two of which were destroyed. The tornadic storm continued northeast where it crossed County Road 4230 and significantly damaged the Dekalb Water Treatment Plant, before crossing the intersection of Farm to Market Road 990 and Farm to Market Road 1840 where a one-story home had its roof removed and several hardwood and softwood trees were snapped or uprooted. As the tornado tracked across County Road 4228, there were signs of it widening where the snapped hardwood trees and downed power lines were more noticeable. Once the tornado tracked across Highway 82, hardwood trees snapped at its base and significant damage to roofs of a church and nearby one and two-story homes were prevalent. The tornadic storm continued to move northeast across County Road 3201 where numerous hardwood trees were downed and a camper was destroyed. The tornado continued northeast where it crossed County Road 3203, uplifting a metal roof from a home and destroyed seven chicken farm buildings. Once it crossed northeast across County Road 3202, it split and twisted hardwood trees and destroyed an outbuilding before finally dissipating.||In all, 16 single family homes were damaged, 9 suffering minor damage, and 7 with major damage, with 32 mobile homes damaged, 25 suffering minor damage, 4 with major damage, and 3 mobile homes destroyed. The Dekalb Water Treatment Plant suffered about $500,000 in damage, with another $500,000 damage done to the chicken houses that were destroyed, as well to an auto repair shop and a gun shop that were significantly damaged. Approximately 200,000 chickens were killed, and 1 cow was killed as well.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:17 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:07 UTC and running to 04:01 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:40 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), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:26 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 2018 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.