EF0 tornado, Lake Bridgeport to Chico, Texas, March 18, 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

March 18, 2020

Touchdown

9:20 PM CDT (02:20 UTC)

Lifted

9:32 PM CDT (02:32 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.5 km)

Path width

575 yards (526 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$70,000

County

Wise County

Touchdown point

33.250, -97.899

Lift-off point

33.273, -97.835

Record number

2003182020-01

4 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 110 mph.

• Mobile home moved several feet back, shifted off concrete pillars. Windows broke. Shingle damage to roof, no loss of decking. Loss of second mobile home so winds may have been close to 105-110 mph in this location. Flip of 18-wheel truck bed. Damage to trees.
• Trees snapped at a level at or above roof line on this lower elevation home. Home sustained minor roof damage, but damage to the trees was more significant.
• Boat was displaced from house across the street. Wide swath of tree damage about 1/4 mile wide. Most trees snapped but some uprooted, possibly from saturated grounds.
• Roof was lifted off over the garage once the wind entered the garage through the bent doors. Boat and trailer were thrown across the street and considerable tree damage nearly a quarter mile wide was noted around this property.

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

An upper level trough near the region contributed to several rounds of severe weather over a 2 day period. The first round was an MCS that resulted in flooding across parts of North Texas. The second round resulted in a few tornadoes to the west and northwest of the DFW Metroplex. The final round was afternoon convection that produced some small hail around the DFW Metroplex.

A tornado began in western Wise Co near El Lago Road and Private Road 1732. The tornado damaged trees and 2 mobile homes in the early part of the track. The most significant damage occurred to property along Moonlight Bay Drive. Dozens of trees were uprooted, snapped or damaged in a wide swath. The roof was partially torn off of one house when the winds entered the garage and tore off the roof over the garage. The tornado then moved over Lake Bridgeport continuing to the northeast. It damaged more trees on the northeast side of the lake between the lake shore and County Road 2952. It did cross CR 2952 but its dissipation point could not be determined as it moved into unreachable land on the east side of the road. The tornado dissipated before reaching the town of Chico. The tornado traveled just over 4 miles and was about 0.3 miles wide at its widest point. The maximum winds were estimated at 110 mph.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:48 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:48 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:48 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.

Bridgeport (XBP), 10 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), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:18 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

6 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.