EF0 tornado, Highland Park to Bouchard, Texas, May 16, 2021

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 16, 2021

Touchdown

2:00 PM CDT (19:00 UTC)

Lifted

2:03 PM CDT (19:03 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2,000

County

Dallas County

Touchdown point

32.845, -96.798

Lift-off point

32.848, -96.796

Record number

2105161300-01

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 EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 76 mph.

• Tennis fence blown toward the west, possibly on backside of tornado.

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

Mid-May thunderstorms associated with an upper low to our west and multiple disturbances out ahead of it produced isolated instances of severe weather and heavy rain across parts of the region. A total of 6 weak tornadoes occurred.

A tornado developed at Williams Park, leading to mainly down tree branches. The tornado then traveled northeast into Goar Park, uprooting a large tree. Surveillance footage from the fire station shows a circulation on the ground as the tornado crossed University Blvd. As the tornado crossed Turtle Creek Blvd, the main damage occurred to tree limbs, with occasional shingle damage. Maximum estimated winds were 75 mph.

The same supercell that produced a tornado in University Park produced another tornado just north of Royal Ln and east of Michaels Drive. The first signs of damage appeared on Lavendale Circle with a few uprooted small trees and down tree branches. The tornado continued moving to the northeast, strengthening to an EF-1 with 90 mph winds. The primary area of more substantial damage occurred just west and north of the North Haven Gardens. A single-family home on Northhaven Rd sustained the worst damage, with a partial roof collapse. Northeast of the worst affected residence, occasional roof/shingle damage and downed tree branches were found. Maximum estimated winds were 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.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:42 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.

Dallas/Love Field (DAL), 5 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), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:59 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

8 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.