EF0 tornado, Groesbeck to Fallon, Texas, March 21, 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

March 21, 2022

Touchdown

8:08 PM CDT (01:08 UTC)

Lifted

8:18 PM CDT (01:18 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

11.8 miles (19.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Limestone County

Touchdown point

31.506, -96.576

Lift-off point

31.602, -96.423

Record number

2203211908-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Piece of roof visible on far side
• Roof from trailer addition removed with twisting in downed antenna tower in the yard
• Structure struck a tree and wrapped around but twisting seen in parts of metal framing. Structure anchored 3 foot into the ground.
• End point of core of damage

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 began on the southwest side of Groesbeck along the west side of S State Highway 114 where damage to a small barn resulted in the removal of the roof. As the tornado moved northeast it caused a narrow path of damage along Private Road 5401 with a few structures damaged including the lift and removal of a metal roof from a manufactured home and damage to a few metal shelters and a carport. The tornado then crossed Highway 14 N just north of Groesbeck causing damage to several trees as the tornado tracked toward Shiloh. As the tornado reached County Road 431 and FM 39 it lifted/wrapped a large anchored farm outbuilding against a tree. After crossing FM 39 the tornado partially removed the roof of a manufactured home before it is believed to have lifted. Maximum estimated winds were 85 mph.

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

43 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:25 UTC, 43 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:52 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 Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:07 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.