EF0 tornado, Canyon Res to Sattler, Texas, April 20, 2023

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

April 20, 2023

Touchdown

10:40 PM CDT (03:40 UTC)

Lifted

10:44 PM CDT (03:44 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Comal County

Touchdown point

29.853, -98.266

Lift-off point

29.823, -98.230

Record number

2304202140-01

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

• Loss of siding and large tree uprooted
• Trees uprooted and snapped.
• Trees also snapped and uprooted nearby this picture.
• With no visible damage to the adjacent building went slight lower on the wind threshold from the snapped trunk.

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

An upper level trough moved across the southwest US and brought a cold front through Central Texas. Thunderstorms developed in the warm, moist airmass south of the front in response to a mid-level shortwave trough. Some of these storms produced severe weather including one tornado.

A National Weather Service storm survey determined that a tornado occurred near the communities of Canyon Lake and Startzville during the late evening hours of April 20. The tornado touched down at 10:40 PM CDT near the Lakeside Golf Club just north of FM 2673. The tornado tracked southeast approximately three miles, damaging and uprooting trees at EF0 intensity along its path. Minor roof damage was noted at |residences along Campbell Dr. and Dorothy Dr. just south of the Lakeside Golf Club. The tornado traveled southeast crossing FM 2673 near the intersection with FM 2722 before lifting at 10:44 PM CDT near the intersection of FM 2772 and JDJ Dr. Peak wind speeds were estimated to be 85 MPH, and the maximum path width was 250 yards.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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 Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:38 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 2023 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.