Unrated tornado, Dickens, Texas, May 20, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

May 20, 2019

Touchdown

6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)

Lifted

6:54 PM CDT (23:54 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Dickens County

Touchdown point

33.605, -100.595

Lift-off point

33.632, -100.547

Record number

1905201747-01

The afternoon of the 20th was the beginning of an extended period of several weeks of severe weather for the South Plains and Rolling Plains of West Texas. A high risk of severe weather was issued by the Storm Prediction Center in the morning for the afternoon of the 20th. Southwest flow aloft with an embedded mid level jet streak contributed to an ample amount of lift across the region. Numerous thunderstorms developed east of the dryline which was located west of the Interstate 27/US Highway 87 corridor. Very strong instability developed out ahead of the dryline in the warm sector along with favorable shear for supercell and tornado development. Although no long track tornadoes were observed, there were several weak tornadoes that developed. The most destructive storm of the afternoon was a supercell that moved through parts of the city of Lubbock (Lubbock County). A widespread swath of wind gusts in excess of 60 mph and extensive wind damage was seen from southern Lubbock County up through the south side of Lubbock and into Idalou. Due to the fast moving nature of the thunderstorms, this damage occurred over a period of only nine minutes from 1504 through 1513 CST. Most damage reports consisted of downed trees and power lines.

Numerous storm chasers observed a large rain wrapped tornado about 15 miles east of Dickens near US Highway 82. A storm chaser did report that there were trees downed near the intersection of US Highway 82 and County Road 371.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:27 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:36 UTC and running to 02:55 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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 Lubbock radar (KLBB), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:47 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

38 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.