EF1 tornado, Barstow, Texas, March 13, 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

March 13, 2020

Touchdown

8:13 PM CDT (01:13 UTC)

Lifted

8:14 PM CDT (01:14 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Ward County

Touchdown point

31.475, -103.414

Lift-off point

31.481, -103.412

Record number

2003131913-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MAF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 114 mph.

• 5th wheel trailor overturned

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

An upper level low over southern California moved east and developed into an upper trough over Arizona and New Mexico. An upper level jet stream moved over West Texas and produced more lift in the atmosphere. A cold front moved south into the area and stalled near the Pecos River. There was moderate instability and high moisture and wind shear across the area. These conditions resulted in thunderstorms that produced tornadoes and wind damage near the Pecos River.

A thunderstorm developed over western Reeves County and moved northeast into Ward County. It produced a bowl-shaped tornado just north of Barstow. The tornado developed about a mile northwest of Barstow at the intersection of County Road 140 and 145 and only lasted for about a minute. Power flashes were reported along with damage to northern portions of Barstow. The tornado snapped a utility pole before moving and hitting an RV park. Damage at the park included flipping a trailer on its side, damaging a pickup truck, and causing light damage to three other trailers. Wind speeds were estimated at 100 mph from the damage observed by the NWS survey team which helped classify the tornado as an EF-1. In addition to the damage observed by the survey team, spotters and the public provided visual evidence that a tornado occurred. The path length of the tornado was 0.47 miles and the path width was 20 yards. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:01 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:25 UTC and running to 05:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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 Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:13 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.