Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2021
Unrated tornado, Files Vly to Boz, Texas, May 16, 2021
From Files Vly to Boz, this Unrated tornado ran 2.3 miles across Ellis and Hill counties on May 16, 2021, touching down at 1:42 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- Unrated
- Date
- May 16, 2021
- Touchdown
- 1:42 PM CDT (18:42 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:50 PM CDT (18:50 UTC)
- On the ground
- 8 minutes
- Path length
- 2.3 miles (3.7 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Ellis and Hill counties
- Touchdown point
- 32.258, -97.085
- Lift-off point
- 32.290, -97.074
- Record number
- 2105161242-01
What the Weather Service recorded
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 storm spotter tracked and video recorded a tornado from extreme northeastern Hill county into western Ellis county. Some tree leaves and small branches were lofted into the tornado circulation. The tornado dissipated before crossing FM 916 west of Maypearl. No damage was found or reported with this tornado as it tracked over inaccessible rural land.
A storm spotter tracked and video recorded a tornado from extreme northeastern Hill county into western Ellis county. Some tree leaves and small branches were lofted into the tornado circulation. The tornado dissipated before crossing FM 916 west of Maypearl. No damage was found or reported with this tornado as it tracked over inaccessible rural land.
Video shows a brief tornado tracking across rural land near the intersection of Old Maypearl Rd and Greathouse Rd. No damage was reported with this tornado.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
25 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:17 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 UTC | 04:12 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | FWD |
| 18:17 UTC | 18:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
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 forecast that day
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 air that afternoon
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.
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z
5.3 hours after it, 65 km from the path. May 17, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 496 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -83 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1903 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 815 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 58 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 137 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
The surface observations
Hillsboro (INJ), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:55 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 150° 9 kt | 1015.2 | RA | |
| 17:15 UTC | 70.2 | 70.2 | 140° 9 kt | 1015.2 | -RA | |
| 17:35 UTC | 70.3 | 70.3 | 140° 9 kt | 1015.2 | -RA | |
| 17:55 UTC | 70.3 | 70.3 | 120° 10 kt | 14 | 1014.6 | -VCTSRA |
| 18:15 UTC | 71.4 | 71.4 | 130° 15 kt | 20 | 1014.2 | -TSRA |
| 18:35 UTC | 71.8 | 71.8 | 150° 14 kt | 19 | 1014.6 | -TSRA |
| 18:55 UTC | 72.3 | 72.3 | 160° 12 kt | 17 | 1014.2 | |
| 19:15 UTC | 74 | 74 | 160° 16 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 19:35 UTC | 75.2 | 75.2 | 150° 16 kt | 1013.9 | ||
| 19:55 UTC | 75.7 | 75.7 | 160° 15 kt | 22 | 1013.9 | |
| 20:15 UTC | 74 | 74 | 170° 12 kt | 19 | 1014.2 | |
| 20:35 UTC | 73.4 | 73.4 | 160° 12 kt | 16 | 1014.2 | VCTS |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:40 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:42 UTC | TORNADO | 5 E Grandview | Hill, TX | 5/16 HILL & ELLIS COUNTIES TORNADO - A STORM SPOTTER TRACKED AND RECORDED A TORNADO FROM EXTREME NORTHEASTERN HILL COUNTY INTO ELLIS COUNTY. SOME TREE LEAVES AND SMALL BRANCHES WERE REPORTEDLY LOFTED INTO THE TORNADO CIR |
| 19:08 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ese Maypearl | Ellis, TX | 5/16 ELLIS COUNTY TORNADO NEAR MAYPEARL- VIDEO SHOWS A BRIEF TORNADO TRACKING ACROSS RURAL LAND NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF OLD MAYPEARL RD AND GREATHOUSE RD. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED WITH THIS TORNADO. |
| 20:14 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Nne Maypearl | Ellis, TX | 5/16 ELLIS COUNTY TORNADO NEAR SOUTH PRONG CREEK - VIDEO WAS OBTAINED OF A TORNADO EAST OF THE SHADOW CREEK PUMPKIN FARM. RADAR ESTIMATED THE CIRCULATION LOCATION NEAR FM 875 AND SOUTH PRONG CREEK. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 16, 2021
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 16 | 11:14 AM CDT | EF0 | Bell, TX | 1.9 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 16 | 2:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Dallas, TX | 0.3 | 30 | $2,000 | ||
| May 16 | 2:08 PM CDT | Unrated | Ellis, TX | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| May 16 | 2:10 PM CDT | EF1 | Dallas, TX | 0.6 | 90 | $50,000 | ||
| May 16 | 3:14 PM CDT | Unrated | Ellis, TX | 0.6 | 50 | |||
| May 16 | 4:15 PM MDT | Unrated | Crowley, CO | 2.6 | 20 | |||
| May 16 | 7:40 PM CDT | Unrated | Lamb, TX | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| May 16 | 10:46 PM CDT | EF0 | Haskell, TX | 0.1 | 130 | $100,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.