EF1 tornado, Justin to Denton Hartlee Arpt, Texas, April 30, 2019

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

April 30, 2019

Touchdown

6:25 PM CDT (23:25 UTC)

Lifted

6:29 PM CDT (23:29 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.3 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Denton County

Touchdown point

33.084, -97.277

Lift-off point

33.103, -97.265

Record number

1904301725-01

48 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

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

An unstable airmass was in place when an upper level disturbance traveled from New Mexico into the Plains, igniting strong to severe thunderstorms in and north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Tuesday evening. One storm produced two tornadoes in Denton County.

This tornado initially formed in open pasture land approximately 1.2 miles east southeast of Justin, snapping small trees. The tornado moved northeastward, crossing Denton Creek immediately east of the FM 407 bridge over this stream. In this heavily forested bottomland, numerous large hardwood trees were snapped and twisted approximately 25-50 feet off the ground. Winds along this portion of the path were estimated at 85-90 mph, resulting in a maximum low end EF-1 intensity rating. The tornado continued northeastward, uprooting or snapping several trees along FM 407 beyond the Denton Creek bridge, before finally recrossing FM 407 near the entrance to the Northridge Estates subdivision in Northlake. Several homes in this subdivision sustained minor roof and tree damage consistent with 60-70 mph EF-0 winds. The tornado dissipated soon after entering this neighborhood.

This tornado formed on the east side of the Texas Woman's University (TWU) campus, initially producing some minor tree damage behind Jones Hall. Moving northeastward, the tornado uprooted several large trees along the edge of the TWU golf course before crossing University Drive. The track continued northeastward through heavily wooded neighborhoods in northeast Denton, snapping or uprooting numerous trees. Several large trees (and many smaller trees/limbs) fell on homes and vehicles, resulting in significant property damage. This tornado crossed Loop 288 and caused some minor tree damage before dissipating near the intersection of Sherman Drive (FM 428) and Hartlee Fields Road. During the vast majority of its lifetime, the tornado produced EF-0 damage on the order of 60- 75 mph. However, tree damage at a couple of locations, particularly just south of University Drive, was consistent with high end EF-0/low end EF-1 intensity winds on the order of 85-90 mph.

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

30 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:55 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:20 UTC and running to 02:58 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:46 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 Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:23 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 2019 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

55 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.