EF1 tornado, Ft Worth Saginaw Arp to Keller Alta Vista Ar, Texas, May 29, 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

May 29, 2019

Touchdown

1:31 PM CDT (18:31 UTC)

Lifted

1:34 PM CDT (18:34 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Tarrant County

Touchdown point

32.911, -97.306

Lift-off point

32.913, -97.299

Record number

1905291231-01

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

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

A cold front ignited scattered to numerous thunderstorms across the region on Wednesday, May 29. Many of these were severe and a few produced damaging tornadoes.

This tornado initially formed near the Villages of Eagle Mountain subdivision, damaging one home where some of the bricks on the front part of the house fell off. The tornado continued on a track to the east-northeast between W Bailey Boswell Rd and WJ Boaz Rd. In this neighborhood, a couple of trees were snapped, consistent with 80 mph EF-0 winds, but most of the damage found was broken tree branches. The tornado then moved over N Saginaw Blvd (US 287/81) damaging several business signs and bending power poles. It continued to move east-northeast, dissipating between E Bailey Boswell Road and Darlington Trail, where no more damage was found. Maximum winds with the tornado were estimated at 80 mph.

A brief EF-1 tornado occurred across parts of the Heritage neighborhood in North Fort Worth. Most of the damage was found in an approximate 8 block area south of Heritage Trace Parkway. There was significant tree damage, roof covering loss and broken windows. Around 30 homes were affected, and 2 homes had minor damage. The tornado started near Burst Dr (just east of Old Denton Rd) and dissipated three minutes later near Kimbell Dr. Maximum winds with the tornado were estimated at 90 mph.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:58 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:47 UTC and running to 22:57 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:35 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), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:32 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

40 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.