EF3 tornado, (P07)Sanderson, Texas, June 2, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

June 2, 2024

Touchdown

7:14 PM CDT (00:14 UTC)

Lifted

7:18 PM CDT (00:18 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

12

Property damage

$400,000

County

Terrell County

Touchdown point

30.153, -102.424

Lift-off point

30.148, -102.410

Record number

2406021814-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MAF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• Where damaged vegetation begins.
• House blown off original location
• Minimum weight 4650lbs, north edge of width
• Center of path, vegetation convergence

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

Troughing across the western CONUS with leading shortwave impulses continued to aid in developing severe thunderstorms around the higher terrain of west Texas. Several intense supercells produced very large hail and tornadoes near the Stockton Plateau region, including a damaging tornado that impacted the town of Sanderson.

Photos showed a tornado formed very near Sanderson along a ridge northwest of town. This tornado immediately entered a neighborhood west of US Highway 285 in Sanderson. Damage in this neighborhood included damage to walls and roofs of several houses with the complete destruction of a manufactured home. A sturdy steel carport collapsed in on itself, and trees were debarked in the area. This damage was rated with a max estimated wind speed of 140 MPH, making this tornado an EF-3. This tornado would continue a short distance to the east of this neighborhood, moving shipping containers and snapping power poles before lifting. Property damage cost is an estimation. Additionally, 12 injuries were reported, one was critical.

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

35 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:39 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:00 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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 Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 201 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:14 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 2024 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.