EF0 tornado, Cleveland Muni Arpt to Eastgate, Texas, December 26, 2024

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

December 26, 2024

Touchdown

4:05 PM CST (22:05 UTC)

Lifted

4:09 PM CST (22:09 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Liberty County

Touchdown point

30.067, -95.022

Lift-off point

30.082, -95.013

Record number

2412261605-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HGX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 65 mph.

• Damage to homes on CR 2298
• Video from public shows tornado on the ground in Huffman. No damage observed during survey. Wind speed estimated.
• Video from trained spotter of tornado on the ground in a field. No damage observed during survey. Wind speeds estimated.
• Video from trained spotter of tornado on the ground in field NW of Dayton. No damage observed during survey. Wind speed estimated.

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

Storms on the 26th of December produced tornadoes and waterspouts.

Broadcast media reported damage at an RV park and images of downed trees northwest of Moss Hill. Survey teams would later find damage to homes near county road 2298, marking the beginning of this tornado. Further northeast, survey teams found damage to mobile homes, consistent to what the media had initially reported. Trees were uprooted and some fell on top of a mobile home. A chain link fence serving as a pet enclosure was blown a few yards away. These damage indicators suggested peak winds of 76 mph, reaching EF0 levels. Surveys teams also found addition damage past highway 105, with snapped trees near Mud Lake. Branches of 1 to 3 inch diameter were also broken in this area.

A video on social media from trained spotter showed a tornado on the ground in field northwest of Dayton. No damage was observed by survey teams. Wind speeds were estimated at 60 mph, at EF0 levels.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:45 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:34 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 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 19:54 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.

Liberty (T78), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Houston radar (KHGX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:07 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

9 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.