EF0 tornado, Spearman, Texas, May 1, 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

May 1, 2024

Touchdown

6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)

Lifted

6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.2 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

15 yards (14 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Hansford County

Touchdown point

36.185, -101.189

Lift-off point

36.185, -101.186

Record number

2405011746-01

16 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 98 mph.

• Car port and large tree limbs
• Carport completely lifted and displaced
• Chaser video showed poles were snapped
• Car port may not be new damage

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

An elongated upper level trough promoted a dryline setup for severe storms in the eastern Texas Panhandle. Parameters that day begun as conditional, as a thick layer of low level clouds were present that morning in the far east, and an outflow boundary had moved in from convection on the previous day. However, as skies started to clear out and the cap was eroded, the true potential of the system was realized and thunderstorms initiated off the dryline between 3 -4 pm. A favorable environment for supercells to produce large hail and even some giant hail had materialized, and despite modest low level wind shear values at the onset of the event, tornadoes quickly spun up and posed threats for locations near Clarendon, in Spearman, and other parts surrounding. Strong downdraft and outflow winds were also a concern, but no reports had come in for straight line wind damage. As storms moved east throughout the afternoon and evening, they weakened as they entered into a less favorable environment thanks to some of the low clouds from the morning not clearing up in time to sustain thunderstorms.

This tornado touched down to the west of County Road 24 where it snapped the top branches and trunk of a couple of hardwood trees. It then traveled south, crossing County Road 24 and lifting the roof off of a building at the Storage Depot. It continued south and caused minor damage to a nearby shed. The tornado lifted before it reached Highway 207. The maximum estimated wind speed was 85mph.

A small, weak tornado moved east across the Spearman High school football field and into open country. There are multiple videos showing the small tornado crossing Cotter Drive before dissipating. The tornado damaged one small shed and pushed a utility trailer onto its side but didn't damage power lines along the road which supports an EF0 rating. The maximum estimated wind speed was 80mph.

This tornado occurred on the northeast side of Spearman. It initially touched down near Brandt Street and Kenneth Avenue(FM 759 760). Here it snapped some tree branches, lifted some carports and caused minor fence damage. It then traveled north along County Road 25, where it snapped a few power poles and this is where it was given its highest rating. As it neared Highway 15, it collapsed an empty grain silo and caused some minor shingle damage to a few roofs along County Road 25. The tornado|turned east, crossing Highway 15 and caused additional minor roof damage and snapped branches to hardwood trees. It finally lifted just to the east of Highway 15. The maximum estimated wind speed was 98mph.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:38 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:31 UTC and running to 04:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:14 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.

Spearman (E42), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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

12 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.