EF0 tornado, Smithville Muni Arpt to Paige, Texas, May 12, 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

May 12, 2020

Touchdown

10:54 AM CDT (15:54 UTC)

Lifted

11:01 AM CDT (16:01 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Bastrop County

Touchdown point

30.020, -97.210

Lift-off point

30.052, -97.188

Record number

2005120954-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

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

A mesoscale convective vortex developed overnight and with daytime heating generated strong thunderstorms during the morning. Some of these storms produced tornadoes and heavy rain that led to flash flooding.

A National Weather Service damage survey concluded that a weak EF0 tornado formed just south of the Colorado River near Smithville on FM 2571. There it produced tree damage and some visible wind damage to a few residences along FM 2571. The tornado moved northeast and crossed Hidden Shores Road where more tree damage was observed. The tornado then crossed the river before dissipating near the intersection of Highway 71 and Kellar Road. Maximum winds were estimated at 80 mph.

A storm chaser reported a brief tornado just west of FM 2104 south of Paige.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:36 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:48 UTC and running to 22:00 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:54 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 Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:54 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.