EF0 tornado, Stamford, 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

10:46 PM CDT (03:46 UTC)

Lifted

10:47 PM CDT (03:47 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

130 yards (119 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Haskell County

Touchdown point

32.966, -99.805

Lift-off point

32.965, -99.803

Record number

2105162146-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SJT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Building lifted and blown about 75 miles
• Roof completely lifted, but tree above it may have stopped it from getting blown away from structure
• Panel from outbuilding tossed to the north about 20 yards

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

Isolated dryline thunderstorms developed on the evening of May 16, well in advance of an approaching upper level low. These storms produced an EF-0 tornado on the north side of Anson, and large hail and damaging winds in Fisher and Haskell Counties. An approaching upper low from New Mexico interacted with a warm front on May 17, and produced a long track EF2 tornado across northern Sterling County along with several severe weather reports. Many storm chasers videotaped this tornado as it tracked across the wind farms. Heavy rain resulted in some flash flooding in Fisher County on the night of May 18 and in Irion County on the afternoon of May 19.

This EF-0 tornado with peak winds estimated at 85 mph began just west of U.S. Highway 277 where it damaged a roof of a home and broke many smaller to medium size Mesquite tree branches. It crossed U.S. Highway 277, broke more tree limbs and struck an auto and body shop. The tornado lifted a small steel metal building at the auto and body shop and threw it 75 yards. It broke tree branches and damaged the roof of a nearby building. The tornado also caused debris to penetrate a nearby metal building, and it damaged a nearby porch.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:46 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:40 UTC and running to 07:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:53 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.

Dyess Afb/Abilene (DYS), 61 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:46 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.