EF0 tornado, Keene to Venus, Texas, April 4, 2022

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

April 4, 2022

Touchdown

11:06 PM CDT (04:06 UTC)

Lifted

11:10 PM CDT (04:10 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

32.452, -97.118

Lift-off point

32.486, -97.095

Record number

2204042206-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Damage and loss of metal roof panels. Wall of bay doors damaged. Straight line winds most likely punched in the large metal doors and then lifted the metal roof off the building on the west side. Tree breakage was also notes along the perimeter of the property, and fence damage on the north side, likely due to parts of the roof hitting the fence.

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

Thunderstorms developed along a slow moving cold front on the evening of Monday, April 4, aided by the arrival of an upper level disturbance. All modes of severe weather were produced across parts of primarily North Texas. This event generated 6 tornadoes, 4 of which were in Johnson County. The strongest tornado was an EF-2. Additional swaths of damaging downburst winds were documented in Kaufman and Van Zandt counties.

A small and narrow tornado damaged mostly trees and caused minor roof damage north of Keene. Maximum wind speeds are estimated at 80 mph.

An EF-0 tornado with maximum winds of 85 mph caused minor damage to roofs and damage to outbuildings, animal homes, and trees across an area north of Alvarado. The tornado likely began near CR 600 and FM 917, tracking east into the Homestead area.

Analysis from a storm survey and CASA radar indicated an EF-0 tornado developed just south of the intersection of FM 157 and CR 506 north of Venus. The tornado tracked across mostly open field, but was identified by tree damage and damage to a few structures along CR 506. Structural damage was primarily to roofs and awnings to two residences and other nearby outbuildings. Damage was consistent with maximum winds up to 80 mph. The tornado tracked generally in a northeasterly direction and dissipated southeast of the intersection of Delta and CR 511, just west of the Johnson and Ellis County line.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:50 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:24 UTC and running to 04:37 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 Enhanced 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), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:03 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 2022 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.