EF1 tornado, Hicksbaugh, Texas, December 29, 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 29, 2022

Touchdown

4:08 PM CST (22:08 UTC)

Lifted

4:09 PM CST (22:09 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Tyler County

Touchdown point

30.584, -94.261

Lift-off point

30.590, -94.260

Record number

2212291608-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LCH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• A property with two mobile homes was directly impacted by the Drakes Branch Tornado. The tornado was strongest at this location. A few pine trees were snapped in the limbs and trunks. Two mobile homes only had minor damage, however, a barbecue shack was heavily damaged along with a pontoon boat that was thrown roughly 25 yards into a pine tree.
• The tornado was lifting at this point. There was minor damage to a mobile home and a couple of hardwood trees. One hardwood was uprooted. Wind speeds are estimated at 80 mph.
• The starting point to the Drakes Branch Tornado. A fence was damaged along with a hardwood tree that was heavily splintered. Estimated 80 mph winds.

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

A gulf low develop along the Texas coast and moved northeast across the region. Heavy rain and severe storms occurred ahead of the low and associated cold front.

Several pine trees were damaged along with a few hardwoods. The tornado reached maximum intensity near County Road 4600 where a few pine trees were snapped within it's trunk. At this same location, a BBQ shack was heavily damaged along with an awning that was completely destroyed. A pontoon boat was ripped off of its trailer, and thrown approximately 25 yards into a pine tree. Two mobile homes also sustained minor damage along County Road 4600. Estimated maximum winds were 90 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:48 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 Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 113 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:05 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

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.