EF1 tornado, Godley to Joshua Arpt, Texas, January 10, 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

January 10, 2020

Touchdown

5:41 PM CST (23:41 UTC)

Lifted

5:47 PM CST (23:47 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

32.489, -97.467

Lift-off point

32.493, -97.450

Record number

2001101741-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 87 mph.

• Barn flipped on its side onto a mobile home
• First hand report of "a lot of damage on CR 913A and Piester. There is a barn flipped onto a house, porches destroyed, barns ripped in half, and broken windows." via FaceBook
• Homes along the west end of Dove Meadows Lane sustained shingle damage to their roofs.

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

A deep upper level trough and a humid and unstable environment resulted in an early severe weather event across North and Central Texas. Severe storms developed in the afternoon hours to the northwest and north of the DFW Metroplex. These storms eventually developed into an expanding squall line. A total of 5 tornadoes occurred with this event along with some damaging wind and smaller-sized hail.

The tornado began at approximately 5:41 PM CST in an open field west of CR-913A and damaged several homes and buildings near Piester and CR-913A. A barn was flipped and came to rest on the side of a house. Several homes in the area had damaged roofs and/or collapsed attached awnings. A large horse trailer was moved and an 18 wheeler trailer was overturned. A small 5 ft by 6 ft storage shed was damaged as well as 4 power poles leaning 10-15 degrees. Just northeast of this area, several homes near the end of Dove Meadow Lane sustained minor damage. Shingles were removed from homes and sheds were damaged. The tornado dissipated before reaching FM 1014. This tornado was rated an EF-1 with maximum winds of 90 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:20 UTC and running to 01:37 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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.

Cleburne (CPT), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:40 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

17 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.