Unrated tornado, Copper Breaks St Pk to Medicine Mound, Texas, April 23, 2021

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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

April 23, 2021

Touchdown

5:43 PM CDT (22:43 UTC)

Lifted

5:52 PM CDT (22:52 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

County

Hardeman County

Touchdown point

34.130, -99.730

Lift-off point

34.110, -99.690

Record number

2104231643-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 118 mph.

• Numerous vehicles and heavy farm implements displaced, including a pick-up truck thrown ~100 yards south-southwest.

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

A dryline and an upper trough led to the development of numerous thunderstorms, producing hail, wind, and several tornadoes during the afternoon and evening of the 23rd.

Numerous storm chasers witnessed a tornado in extreme southern Hardeman County south of Quanah that developed close to State Highway 6 and moved east-southeast. The only known damage was to a cattle feeder in this rural area. The tornado path is estimated.

Storm chasers observed a relatively brief tornado to the southwest of Medicine Mound. This tornado occurred in breaks just north of the Pease River and no known damage occurred. The tornado location is estimated.

Storm chasers observed a tornado develop at about 6:10 PM. A second tornado developed at about 6:12 PM with both observed simultaneously until this tornado dissipated at 6:14 PM. The tornado produced no known damage in the breaks north of the Pease River, and the path was estimated.

The second of the twin tornadoes moved southeast across southeastern Hardeman County. No damage is known to have occurred as the tornado moved through breaks north of the Pease River. As it moved through southeastern Hardeman County and into Wilbarger County, this may have been a series of tornadoes as the visual condensation funnel was not visible at times. One storm chaser reported seeing surface circulation continue through many times where the condensation funnel was not visible, so it is being documented as a continuous tornado here from the initial development in Hardeman County to west of Lockett in Wilbarger County.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:40 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:19 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 UTC and running to 01:02 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:43 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 2021 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.