EF2 tornado, Plum, Texas, May 3, 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 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

May 3, 2019

Touchdown

9:04 AM CDT (14:04 UTC)

Lifted

9:12 AM CDT (14:12 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.9 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$4.0 million

County

Fayette County

Touchdown point

29.907, -96.957

Lift-off point

29.939, -96.940

Record number

1905030804-01

32 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Looks like rotted out Oak blown over
• Very Large branches and limbs broken off
• Carport type building destroyed
• 90000 lb machinery tipped over

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

Convection from the previous day left a number of outflow boundaries across South Central Texas. These interacted with a mid to upper level shortwave trough to trigger thunderstorms. Some of these storms produced tornadoes, large hail, damaging wind gusts, and heavy rain that led to flash flooding.

The same storm that produced the Salem-Freyburg Rd. EF0 tornado continued to move north through central Fayette County. As it approached the west side of La Grange, it produced another tornado with visible tree damage just south of the La Grange airport near the intersection of Supak Ln. and Jackson Rd. Large oak trees were damaged and uprooted near this area and areas along Old Lockhart Rd. Damage in this area was estimated to be EF1. The tornado then approached Hwy 71 producing heavy damage to a business on the south side of the road. At this location a large metal building was destroyed while another was heavily damaged. Business and employee vehicles were overturned and a 90,000 lb. piece of machinery was shifted and overturned. Damage was estimated to be EF2 as it crossed this area. Employees successfully took shelter in the business office and no injuries were reported. The tornado continued to move north and crossed Hwy 71, destroying/collapsing a metal building across the street and|doing considerable damage to very large oak trees. The path continued north to Egypt Rd. where a small church was heavily damaged and more tree damage was observed. The tornado finally dissipated north of this area near Egypt Rd. just south of the Colorado River.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:59 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:30 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 12:55 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 Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:03 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

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.