EF2 tornado, Belk to Faulkner, Texas, April 22, 2020

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

April 22, 2020

Touchdown

6:51 PM CDT (23:51 UTC)

Lifted

7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

10.4 miles (16.7 km)

Path width

810 yards (741 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

Counties

Lamar and Red River counties

Touchdown point

33.817, -95.480

Lift-off point

33.842, -95.307

Record number

2004221751-01

29 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• A few sheds and outbuildings in this area sustained visible damage to metal panels.
• Reports of the tornado over water from local residents.
• trees uprooted and snapped along the road to this point. minor shingle damage but homes okay
• think I’m on the outer weaker end of tornado. large tree limb went through roof of house. mostly leaf and small limb damage otherwise

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

Thunderstorms developed along a dryline as a strong upper level disturbance crossed the Southern Plains. Some wind damage was reported across Central Texas, and a couple of tornadoes occurred in Lamar County.

A majority of the damage associated with this tornado was to a mix of softwood and hardwood trees, though a few outbuildings were damaged near the community of Direct. This tornado appears to have started near/along County Road 36500 and then tracked towards the east, crossing Farm-to-Market Road 1499. The end of the tornado track was difficult to determine due to limited road access, but the tornado appears to have dissipated along the southern edge of Pat Mayse Lake. Maximum winds with this tornado were estimated at 110 mph.

Based on the damage surveyed, this tornado started just to the east-northeast of the Powderly/Camp Maxey area near the Hidden Lakes Estates along FM 3298. Numerous trees were damaged/snapped or uprooted along the path of the tornado with some relatively minor roof damage to a handful of residential structures. The most concentrated damage occurred along County Road 45250 where considerable tree damage occurred and the EF-2 rating was assigned. The tornado crossed into Red River County for about a quarter of a mile as it was dissipating. Maximum estimated winds were 115 mph.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:42 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:16 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:33 UTC and running to 02:00 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 188 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:48 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 2020 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.