EF2 tornado, New Home Arpt to Draw, Texas, May 5, 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 5, 2019

Touchdown

5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)

Lifted

6:50 PM CDT (23:50 UTC)

On the ground

65 minutes

Path length

17.2 miles (27.7 km)

Path width

2,112 yards (1931 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$36,000

County

Lynn County

Touchdown point

33.267, -101.853

Lift-off point

33.107, -101.727

Record number

1905051645-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LUB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 118 mph.

• This was a 33 foot Forester Travel Trailer. Tornado lofted trailer south over a parked pick-up truck and deposited it upside down approximately 150 feet to the south
• Lowered wind from expected due to old/dilapitated structure
• Photo of tornado by NWS Employee

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

Very strong instability developed across the South Plains this afternoon east of a sharp dryline. Scattered thunderstorms developed along the length of this dryline by 1600 CST and slowly matured into severe thunderstorms, including supercells. A remnant outflow boundary near the US Highway 84 corridor drifted west and interacted with an already stout supercell in southwest Lubbock County. This supercell proceeded to anchor to this boundary as it moved slowly southward and supported at least two sizable tornadoes in Lynn County over the next two hours. One of these tornadoes lasted 65 minutes and grew very intense with over 150 knots of gate-to-gate rotation noted per the Lubbock WSR-88D. These tornadoes narrowly missed population centers such as Tahoka and O'Donnell, but extensive lead time from warnings and excellent storm spotter reports gave the public plenty of time to seek shelter. This prolific supercell also produced very large hail to tennis ball size, intense RFD winds over 80 mph, and flash flooding.

Storm chasers observed what at first looked to be a harmless gustnado southeast of New Home, but this innocuous dirt whirl quickly grew taller and phased with a rotating wall cloud immediately aloft. This tornado slowly intensified just west of US Highway 87 and moved southeast before crossing the highway around 1655 CST. The NWS storm survey found only minimal wind damage along the highway, but this tornado rapidly intensified as it turned nearly due south just east of US Highway 87. It was here that the tornado inflicted EF2 damage to power poles approximately 2.7 miles N-NE of Tahoka. The tornado crossed US Highway 380 about 3 miles east of Tahoka around 1705 CST and grew to just over one mile in width. Visibility was compromised during much of this wedge phase due to large amounts of dust wrapping around the tornado. EF1 damage was noted to a residence along US Highway 380. About a half mile south of the highway the tornado caused EF1 to EF2 damage to a manufactured home and farm equipment. By 1730 CST, the tornado and parent mesocyclone halted their S-SE motion and wobbled back to the west as indicated by the radar data and storm chaser video. Based on reports from a few storm chasers, at least one additional tornado may have accompanied this larger tornado at times a mile or two to its northeast, but a lack of sufficient evidence prevented these reports from being submitted.

This tornado developed along Farm to Market 1054 south of the small community of Draw and produced EF1 damage to trees at a residence nearby. The tornado moved south-southwest and grew to a considerable size around one half mile wide while becoming heavily cloaked in dust, but fortunately did not cause any other known damage. As is common with decaying tornadoes with slow motions, this tornado curled abruptly to the left of its mean track (east in this case) and dissipated very near the Lynn and Borden County line.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:55 UTC and running to 03:23 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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.

Lamesa (LUV), 49 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:44 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

21 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.