EF0 tornado, Perryton, Texas, March 24, 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

March 24, 2024

Touchdown

3:05 PM CDT (20:05 UTC)

Lifted

3:07 PM CDT (20:07 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$21,000

County

Ochiltree County

Touchdown point

36.361, -100.794

Lift-off point

36.370, -100.798

Record number

2403241405-01

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AMA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Pivot twisted in the middle
• Mud on pole grass pushed down. Debris on fence
• Roof panels pulled up. Loss of door
• Shingles and roof material blown off. Wind speeds at or around 85mph.

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

Lingering surface moisture collected along a dryline which eventually lead to the formation of some thunderstorms along a line from Panhandle to Borger to Guymon. This eventually reached an atmospheric environment of better shear and instability in the eastern portions of the Texas Panhandle as well as in Beaver County, Oklahoma. This result in the intensification of storms and a few of these storms became strong with up to on half inch in diameter hail. Storms strengthened further and became severe producing quarter size hail and winds up to 70 mph. Once the dryline passed the surface relative humidity dropped quickly with gusty winds spreading east across the rest of the Panhandles. This kept critical fire conditions in place across the rest of the Panhandles with severe storms exiting to the east. The strong winds associated with this system did pull in a significant amount of dust and pushed into the southern Texas Panhandle.

The tornado developed in a field to the south of County Road M. It then crossed County Road M, where it snapped three power poles and overturned a portion of an irrigation pivot. The tornado then crossed Highway 83 where it caused loss of roofing material to a roundtop quonset. As the tornado continued to track to the northeast, it threw mud on several power poles and deposited debris along County Road L. The tornado tracked northeast before dissipating in a field. Video footage exists that confirms this tornado was rather wide and possibly had multiple vortices. The estimated wind speed of this tornado was 105mph.

This brief tornado touched down shortly after the first tornado as the mesocyclone occluded. Damage to a barn included loss of a door and some lifted roof panels near County Rd K, with additional damage to the Ochiltree Hospital where shingles and|some roof material were blown off just before the tornado lifted. The estimated wind speed of this tornado was 80mph.

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 Marginal Risk. 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 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.

Perryton/Ochiltree County Apt (PYX), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 150 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:07 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

7 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.