EF4 Caviness–Sawyer tornado, Texas and Oklahoma, November 4, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF4

Date

November 4, 2022

Touchdown

4:16 PM CDT (21:16 UTC)

Lifted

5:12 PM CDT (22:12 UTC)

On the ground

56 minutes

Path length

44.7 miles (71.9 km)

Path width

1,700 yards (1554 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

11

Property damage

$5.9 million

Counties

Lamar and Choctaw counties

Touchdown point

33.599, -95.749

Lift-off point

34.117, -95.296

Record number

2211041516-01

49 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD and NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

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

A fast-moving cold front served as a focus for thunderstorm development across North and Central Texas, as an upper level storm system swept across the Plains the afternoon of November 4. Large hail and damaging wind gusts accompanied several of these storms, and a total of 5 tornadoes occurred. The hardest-hit area was Lamar County, where an EF-4 tornado occurred.

A tornado formed near Brookston in western Lamar County and tracked rapidly northeastward, passing to the northwest of Paris, Texas before exiting the northern edge of Lamar County, east of Arthur City. The tornado continued into Choctaw County Oklahoma and additional information about the damage in that county can be found in a separate entry. Several dozen individual homes, businesses and outbuildings were impacted across western and northern Lamar County. Damage consistent with EF-3 intensity tornadic winds of 150-160 mph were identified at several locations west through north of Paris. In particular, several residences along Farm Market Road 1499 northwest of Paris were completely unroofed, with most external and internal walls destroyed. This damage was consistent with tornado intensities of approximately 160 mph. One particular house on CR 33620 revealed EF-4 damage, with estimated winds of at least 170 MPH. EF-3 damage of 145 to 155 mph was also identified with a small number of structures along Farm to Market Road 906 near Mideity, as well as with a residence along Farm to Market Road 2820 west-northwest of Paris. Primary damage to these structures was the total loss of roofs and large-scale interior and exterior wall failure. EF-2 damage, consistent with winds of 111 to 135 mph, was identified with a number of other structures along the tornado's path. Structures with this degree of damage had either all or large portions of their roofs destroyed or significantly damaged, with some wall failures. Widespread EF-1 damage was also apparent all along the track from Brookston to east of Arthur City, as evidenced by trees uprooted, power poles snapped, outbuildings severely damaged, and/or wood frame homes with serious roof damage. Maximum estimated winds were 170 mph.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:56 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:03 UTC and running to 01:00 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 19:36 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 191 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:14 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

29 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.