EF0 tornado, Corsicana, Texas, December 30, 2020

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

December 30, 2020

Touchdown

10:41 AM CST (16:41 UTC)

Lifted

10:44 AM CST (16:44 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Navarro County

Touchdown point

32.072, -96.482

Lift-off point

32.080, -96.469

Record number

2012301041-01

A tornado developed in the Corsicana area damaging a park and mobile home park.

National Weather Service meteorologists, in collaboration with Navarro County Emergency Management officials, determined that a brief tornado occurred on the south side of the City of Corsicana late Wednesday morning, December 30th. A video of the tornado was shared via social media. The tornado formed at the Nature Park Optimist Softball Complex, where it damaged a small concession/storage building, toppled a light pole, and destroyed awnings, fencing, and signage around the complex. The tornado moved east-northeast into adjacent wooded areas, and merged |into a nearby residential area near Cottonwood Circle Trailer Park. At least 13 manufactured and frame-built homes sustained some damage to roofs, siding, and skirting. Two other homes were damaged by falling trees. Several large tree branches were also snapped off. The tornado dissipated shortly after exiting the trailer park. The tornado track was approximately 1 mile in length, with a maximum width of 75 yards. Damage at the softball complex and to some of the manufactured homes was consistent with high end EF-0 intensity tornado winds, with top speeds estimated at 85 mph.

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.

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 16:30 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), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:38 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

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.