EF1 tornado, Pelham to Emhouse, Texas, April 26, 2024

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

April 26, 2024

Touchdown

1:30 PM CDT (18:30 UTC)

Lifted

1:44 PM CDT (18:44 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

9.0 miles (14.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Navarro County

Touchdown point

31.951, -96.803

Lift-off point

32.033, -96.686

Record number

2404261230-01

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 112 mph.

• Wall beams bent in a few locations.
• Resident watched tornado approach. Said it lifted before the creek and dropped in the corn field just west of here. Can see crop damage. Two houses on property. First had metal panels peeled off roof and shifted off cinder blocks 8”, but was not anchored. Winds got in garage of uninhabited second house and lifted roof off, then collapsed on house after walls buckled. Assume tornado lifted just east of property. Can see a few small tree limbs broken to east.
• Hay bales moved into field. Trees pushed over. Truck turned and overturned. Heavy machinery moved. Power pole snapped

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

A shortwave trough, dryline, and Pacific front all worked together to produce multiple rounds of thunderstorms Friday April 26 through Sunday April 28. All modes of severe weather took place across the region, along with multiple instances of flash flooding. 11 tornadoes occurred across McLennan, Hill, and Navarro counties on April 26th, and another 4 tornadoes occurred in Milam, Limestone and Freestone counties on April 28th.

A tornado formed just northwest of Navarro Mills Lake, just east of the Navarro/Hill County line. Damage near this initiation point was confined to split tree trunks consistent with EF-0 intensity windspeeds. The tornado tracked east-northeastward, causing tree damage and impacting multiple residences and outbuildings in areas between FM 744 and Navarro Mills Lake. Most of this damage was EF-0 to low end EF-1 in character, consistent with windspeeds of 75-95 mph. Damage was mainly associated with roof and fascia damage on the residences and significant sheet metal damage on outbuildings. However, one manufactured home was totally destroyed on Navarro County Road 3091, consistent with EF-1 winds estimated at around 110 mph. The tornado crossed FM 744, and dissipated just northwest of the Dresden community.

A tornado formed approximately 2 miles southwest of Barry in open country, based on storm spotter video and eyewitness reports. This tornado moved north and northeast of Barry, impacting several residences and outbuildings along Navarro County roads 1210 and 1230. Most of the structural damage was confined to roofs and outbuilding sheet metal and was consistent with damage intensities of EF-0 and lower end EF-1 magnitude. However, one manufactured home along CR 1230 was totally destroyed, consistent with EF-1 winds of approximately 110 mph. The tornado traveled several additional miles to the east, passing north of Emhouse and producing EF-0 damage to trees and outbuildings. This tornado eventually dissipated in the Chambers Creek drainage west of Rice.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:09 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:12 UTC and running to 23:00 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 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 16:42 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.

Corsicana (CRS), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:29 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 2024 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

77 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 78 of them

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.