EF2 tornado, Pettit, Texas, May 23, 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

May 23, 2022

Touchdown

8:40 PM CDT (01:40 UTC)

Lifted

8:58 PM CDT (01:58 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

7.5 miles (12.1 km)

Path width

1,420 yards (1298 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hockley County

Touchdown point

33.627, -102.544

Lift-off point

33.683, -102.431

Record number

2205231940-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LUB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Snapped power poles, blown south. Picture looking east
• 2 Pump jacks blown over to south. Concrete footings lifted out of the ground with the pump jacks. Pump jacks not an official DI, however wind engineers confirm that it would most likely take tornadic winds to knock pump jacks over
• At least 5 snapped power poles, blown north. Picture looking west.
• Two snapped power poles, snapped off near ground. Damage blown south, picture looking west. Also broken cross member. And croaking frogs.

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

Returning Gulf of Mexico moisture into the South Plains of West Texas fueled widespread severe thunderstorm development across the region on the afternoon and evening of the 23rd. Moderate to strong instability developed across the western South Plains and eastern New Mexico Monday afternoon and evening as the improving low-level moisture and temperatures warming into the 80s developed beneath an approaching upper level storm system. Relatively strong wind shear caused several of the thunderstorms to rotate as they moved into the western South Plains and western Texas Panhandle. A cluster of thunderstorms moving northeast out of southeastern New Mexico interacted with an outflow boundary moving northwest out of the Permian Basin. This caused a storm on the southern flank of the cluster to begin to rotate and become supercellular and take a more easterly, then southeasterly track. As the storm intensified, it became cyclic in behavior and its forward speed varied from about 5 mph to 20 mph. An NWS storm survey revealed that this supercell produced nine separate tornadoes over an approximately two hour period. The tornadoes occurred over rural areas which limited the overall impacts. Spotty damage did occur including two oil pumpjacks that were toppled by the intense tornadic winds. This damage, along with snapped power poles and flipped center pivots earned a peak damage rating of EF-2. The thunderstorms eventually evolved into a larger complex that brought widespread rain to most of the South Plains, Rolling Plains, and southern Texas Panhandle. The heaviest rain was associated with the slow-moving tornadic storm and was concentrated over Bailey County, where three to as much as seven inches of rain fell.

A cyclic tornadic supercell produced several tornadoes over a period of approximately two hours. An NWS storm survey revealed that this supercell produced nine separate tornadoes. This tornado was the seventh tornado. No damage was observed or reported from this short lived, small tornado. The instantaneous center of the tornado was estimated from TTU-Kal radar data.

A cyclic tornadic supercell produced several tornadoes over a period of approximately two hours. An NWS storm survey revealed that this supercell produced nine separate tornadoes. This tornado was the eighth tornado. No damage was observed or reported with this short lived, small tornado. The instantaneous center of the tornado was estimated from TTU-Kal radar data.

A cyclic tornadic supercell produced several tornadoes over a period of approximately two hours. An NWS storm survey revealed that this supercell produced nine separate tornadoes. This tornado was the ninth and final tornado. The NWS storm survey team discovered several locations along Farm to Market Road 303 with wooden power poles snapped at the base and two pump jacks overturned. Maximum winds were estimated at 120 mph. The instantaneous width and center of the tornado was estimated from TTU-Kal radar data.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:11 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:51 UTC and running to 03:26 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 Lubbock radar (KLBB), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:41 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

12 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.