EF1 tornado, Leo to Gainesville, Texas, March 21, 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

March 21, 2022

Touchdown

5:17 PM CDT (22:17 UTC)

Lifted

5:43 PM CDT (22:43 UTC)

On the ground

26 minutes

Path length

18.3 miles (29.5 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cooke County

Touchdown point

33.432, -97.329

Lift-off point

33.649, -97.149

Record number

2203211617-02

126 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 110 mph.

• Tree damage and one tree blown over
• Horse trailer thrown above pickup truck; tractor blown over
• Back half of house damaged, signs of rotation
• Carport completely destroyed

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

A strong shortwave trough aided in the development of scattered to numerous thunderstorms during the late morning, afternoon, and evening hours of March 21. Thunderstorms initially fired along a dryline, many of which became severe, and some of which produced strong tornadoes. A total of 17 tornadoes were confirmed by storm survey teams, the strongest of which was the EF-3 Jacksboro tornado. One death occurred in a tornado in Grayson County near the Red River.

The tornado developed shortly after crossing into Cooke County, first touching down near FM 51 and CR 377 where a tree was uprooted, several large tree branches were snapped, and it knocked down half a concrete silo. Sporadic tree damage was noted along FM 51 leading into Era where damage occurred to a gas station awning. It continued northeast, strengthened and produced major damage to several roofs of homes, snapped trees, and flipped a horse trailer. It continued to move northeast along FM 51 where it destroyed a metal implement shed. As it moved toward Gainesville, it blew out 2 roll up doors and lifted the roof of a commercial building. The tornado then crossed I-35 near US-82 and ripped the aluminum roof off a cattle yard before lifting shortly after. Maximum estimated winds were 105 mph.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:12 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 UTC and running to 00:07 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:16 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

35 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.