EF2 tornado, Pinehill to Fairplay, 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

12:08 AM CDT (05:08 UTC)

Lifted

12:25 AM CDT (05:25 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

11.9 miles (19.2 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$550,000

Counties

Rusk and Panola counties

Touchdown point

32.055, -94.609

Lift-off point

32.206, -94.512

Record number

2203212308-01

156 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

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

A closed upper low emerged out of the Rockies and into the Central Plains during the afternoon and evening hours of March 21st, with the attendant upper trough swinging east through Central Texas and Oklahoma. Strong southerly low level winds allowed for the rapid return of warm, moist, and unstable north behind a warm front which lifted north through East Texas and North Louisiana. Large scale forcing began to increase across Northern and Central Texas during the evening, with showers and thunderstorms becoming numerous across this area which spread into East Texas and North Louisiana during the late evening through the early morning hours of the 22nd. Given the extent of forcing within the unstable air mass in place, severe thunderstorms developed over North-central Texas and spread into East Texas, resulting in numerous reports of damaging winds, large hail, and even isolated tornadoes. Redevelopment of these storms continued overnight as well over the same areas of East Texas and Northwest Louisiana, which resulted in instances of flash flooding as well, as widespread rainfall amounts of 3-6 inches fell over these areas. These storms diminished during the early morning hours of the 22nd with the passage of a cold front through the region.

An EF-2 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 130 mph, touched down along County Road 3124 in extreme Eastern Rusk County, snapping and uprooting several trees before crossing County Road 3121 into Western Panola County. While the stronger winds were noted in Panola County, maximum winds were estimated to be near 90 mph (low EF-1 strength) in extreme Eastern Rusk County.

This is a continuation of the Eastern Rusk County tornado. Although this tornado entered Western Panola County with estimated winds around 90 mph, it strengthened to a strong EF-2 with estimated maximum winds around 130 mph, as it lifted northeast through Western Panola County. It crossed FM 348 and County Roads 881, 188, and 189, snapping and uprooting numerous trees before reaching Highway 79. In this area, several homes were significantly damaged, and one well-built residence lost most of its roof with several walls collapsed. One injury occurred in this home, although the injury was not deemed critical. The damage rating on this structure was a strong EF-2, and near this location, the tornado achieved its maximum width of approximately 500 yards. Near this location, the high level of tree damage and damage to at least one other structure also warranted a rating of EF-2. A home on County Road 293 and a metal building on County Road 237 were also damaged from this tornado, before it lifted along County Road 241 several miles southwest of Beckville.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:42 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:10 UTC and running to 06:58 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, 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.

Carthage (4F2), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:08 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.