EF1 tornado, Laketon, Texas, August 16, 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 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

August 16, 2020

Touchdown

2:46 PM CDT (19:46 UTC)

Lifted

2:52 PM CDT (19:52 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$90,000

County

Gray County

Touchdown point

35.551, -100.597

Lift-off point

35.525, -100.598

Record number

2008161346-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AMA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Four poles snapped. Debris from barn metal roof spread down path.

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

A supercell thunderstorm developed and moved along a frontal boundary south of Miami, Texas on the afternoon of August 16th. The presence of the boundary and high instability aided the storm in developing a strong circulation and produced a short lived tornado which was on the ground for several minutes and less than two miles. The tornado did minor damage to a residence and power lines in the area. The storm also produced large hail across portions of the area.

The tornado did minor damage around a residence which included,|very minor damage to the home roof cap, a rolled and displaced air|conditioner unit, and a destroyed free standing antenna tower. A|heavy duty metal storage box with a stored car inside was also|rolled onto some farming equipment. The tornado stripped|significant amounts of sheet metal off two barns and caused one|wall to collapse. The EF1 rating was due to four 10 inch power|poles which were snapped where the tornado crossed a nearby |county road. Debris from objects around the home and sheet metal |from the barns were carried 100-200 yards down the path.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:45 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:04 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:29 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 Amarillo radar (KAMA), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:45 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

2 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.