EF1 tornado, Bluff Dale, Texas, December 13, 2022

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

December 13, 2022

Touchdown

7:34 AM CST (13:34 UTC)

Lifted

7:37 AM CST (13:37 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

44 yards (40 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Erath County

Touchdown point

32.333, -98.024

Lift-off point

32.336, -98.013

Record number

2212130734-01

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

• Multiple trees uprooted at 410 Lanyard Drive. Resident reported structural damage at his neighbors property too.
• Garage door caved in and roof lifted
• Resident reported that loss of roof materials was so extensive that they could see into the second floor of the home from the outside
• Trees uprooted but no apparent damage to nearby RV

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

A tornado outbreak occurred in the morning hours of December 13th resulting in 16 tornadoes across the northern half of the CWA; generally all along and north of Interstate 20. A total of 4 tornadoes were rated EF-2, and 9 people were injured, but none sustained life saving injuries. The most injuries occurred in the Grapevine tornado in Tarrant County. In addition to the tornadoes, one storm produced hail up to the size tennis balls in Rockwall County.

A brief EF-1 tornado affected Erath County near Bluff Dale. The tornado briefly touched down near Peninsula Drive where multiple, large oak trees were uprooted. The tornado lifted northeast across Lakeside Drive, uprooting numerous trees at three homes along Lanyard Drive. One home suffered significant loss of roofing materials. The tornado continued northeast towards County Road 172 before lifting. Maximum estimated winds were 95 mph.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:34 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:50 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:00 UTC and running to 15:12 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 12:54 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), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:32 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

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.