EF2 tornado, Five Pts to Reagor Spgs, Texas, May 3, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 3, 2021

Touchdown

8:43 PM CDT (01:43 UTC)

Lifted

8:57 PM CDT (01:57 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

5.4 miles (8.7 km)

Path width

659 yards (603 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

8

Property damage

$1.5 million

County

Ellis County

Touchdown point

32.280, -96.910

Lift-off point

32.320, -96.830

Record number

2105031943-01

62 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Tree damage down the treeline. First damage point.
• Partial damage to roof of older home. Home remains in tact. Significant tree damage to the rest of the property. Rotation with tree damage noted.
• Significant tree damage in this area. Damage to roofs mostly shingles. Metal Barns destroyed and small sheds. Bed of 18 wheeler flipped and empty mobile home on side.
• Evidence of disturbed grass in field.

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

Numerous severe thunderstorms erupted along a cold front in the afternoon and evening hours. Many of the storms produced large hail, and a total of 6 tornadoes were recorded. The most significant tornado was an EF-2 in Ellis County, but an EF-2 tornado also occurred in Hill County. Several reports of golf ball sized hail were received, but the largest hail stone reported was 3 inches in Johnson County.

Damage started in the Five Points area along FM 876. The tornado continued northeast, and the first signs of EF-2 damage were observed near Johnston and Hollis Roads. The tornado then crossed I-35E where it struck 3 semis and one cargo van. Three injuries occurred in this location. Next, the tornado struck a scrap metal yard on the east side of I-35E and moved on to damage homes and electrical towers near and along HWY 77 and Butler Ln. EF-2 damage was also observed in this area, in particular to one home. Maximum estimated winds were 120 mph, and there were 5 additional injuries in this area. The tornado tracked farther east, did EF-2 damage to one home on FM 55, and then crossed FM 55 and dissipated.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:07 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:50 UTC and running to 03:22 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:41 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

30 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.