EF2 tornado, Sullivan to Stairtown, 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 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

March 21, 2022

Touchdown

5:48 PM CDT (22:48 UTC)

Lifted

6:08 PM CDT (23:08 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.8 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Guadalupe and Caldwell counties

Touchdown point

29.630, -97.780

Lift-off point

29.729, -97.718

Record number

2203211648-01

48 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Door off Barn. Other possible inconclusive damage
• Maybe the start of the TOR?
• Handful of small trees broken.
• While it is a large tree, tree looked dead.

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

A warm front brought a warm, moist airmass over South Central Texas early in the day. A dryline moved into this area from the west and generated thunderstorms. Some of these storms produced tornadoes, large hail, and damaging wind gusts.

An NWS Storm Survey team determined a tornado caused EF-2 damage along a 7.5 mile track from 3 miles ESE of Kingsbury to 3 miles ESE of Fentress in Caldwell County. Maximum winds were estimated at 115 mph. The rotation in the storm began to tighten as the storm crossed I-10 at 4:47pm CST. Based on radar data the tornado began roughly a minute later. The tornado crossed Appling Rd. where it took off metal panels from two different barn structures including one barn that lost all of its metal roofing and possibly part of an exterior wall. The tornado next crossed Hwy 90 and moved almost parallel to Woodrow Center Rd. for about a mile and a half damaging several large trees and two houses. One house lost some roof shingles. The other sustained more significant damage to its roof. On the same property a large RV was moved about 100 feet from where it was parked and then destroyed when it hit a tree. An old wooden barn was pushed over and twisted. The tornado continued down Woodrow Center Rd. and across Gander Slough Rd. It moved back into an area of shrubs and trees with not many roads along the San Marcos River. Back along the river, a large grove of trees sustained damage with large trees snapped in the middle of the trunk, uprooted completely, or heavily damaged. As the storm began to cycle the tornado began to move northeast and then more north. Another grove of trees was heavily impacted before another house was hit along with a four person ATV being thrown. Two large trees, estimated over 300 years old, were snapped or fully|uprooted. The tornado then crossed Hwy 80 before impacting one more house, damaging an old RV, and causing more tree damage. The tornado quickly fell apart to the northeast of Stairtown, and dissipated near FM 671.

An NWS Storm Survey team determined a tornado caused EF-2 damage along a 7.5 mile track from 3 miles ESE of Kingsbury to 3 miles ESE of Fentress in Caldwell County. Maximum winds were estimated at 115 mph. The rotation in the storm began to tighten as the storm crossed I-10 at 4:47pm CST. Based on radar data the tornado began roughly a minute later. The tornado crossed Appling Rd. where it took off metal panels from two different barn structures including one barn that lost all of its metal roofing and possibly part of an exterior wall. The tornado next crossed Hwy 90 and moved almost parallel to Woodrow Center Rd. for about a mile and a half damaging several large trees and two houses. One house lost some roof shingles. The other sustained more significant damage to its roof. On the same property a large RV was moved about 100 feet from where it was parked and then destroyed when it hit a tree. An old wooden barn was pushed over and twisted. The tornado continued down Woodrow Center Rd. and across Gander Slough Rd. It moved back into an area of shrubs and trees with not many roads along the San Marcos River. Back along the river, a large grove of trees sustained damage with large trees snapped in the middle of the trunk, uprooted completely, or heavily damaged. As the storm began to cycle the tornado began to move northeast and then more north. Another grove of trees was heavily impacted before another house was hit along with a four person ATV being thrown. Two large trees, estimated over 300 years old, were snapped or fully|uprooted. The tornado then crossed Hwy 80 before impacting one more house, damaging an old RV, and causing more tree damage. The tornado quickly fell apart to the northeast of Stairtown, and dissipated near FM 671.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:24 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:14 UTC and running to 06:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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.

Seguin Randolph AFB (SEQ), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:49 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.