Unrated tornado, Boyds Chapel to Hawley, Texas, May 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

May 2, 2024

Touchdown

6:29 PM CDT (23:29 UTC)

Lifted

6:37 PM CDT (23:37 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jones County

Touchdown point

32.777, -100.050

Lift-off point

32.766, -100.046

Record number

2405021729-01

A favorable weather pattern for widespread severe weather was in place across west central Texas during early May. There was an upper level southwest flow and a sharp dryline in the area. Also, extreme instability was present along with strong vertical wind shear during the late afternoon and evening hours. Supercell thunderstorms developed and produced strong tornadoes in Jones, Runnels and Sterling counties which resulted in damage to homes and other structures. Also, severe thunderstorms produced giant size hail and damaging winds.

Spotter reported a tornado briefly touched down 5 miles northwest of Anson. Time, length and width of the tornado reported by storm chaser.

The tornado was part of a cyclical supercell moving southeastward|through Jones County just west of US-277. The tornado that |produced damage dropped just north of CR-460 and moved southeast |before causing damage to metal outbuildings on two properties. It |continued southeast then turned to the south-southwest where it |damaged a home and snapped some trees and wooden power poles. It |continued southwestward before completely destroying a home that |was under construction. It also threw several trucks and a trailer|about 100 yards before crossing CR-458. Continuing southwestward,|the tornado completely destroyed another house and injured a |family of four. The tornado made one more turn southeastward where|it hit a small neighborhood. In the neighborhood, it caused roof |damage to a few homes and outbuildings. Before exiting the |neighborhood, it took most of the roof off of a house and caused |some of the walls to collapse. It also destroyed a metal garage |and heavily damaged an attached metal outbuilding. The tornado |crossed FM-605 before dissipating shortly thereafter. The estimated |peak wind speed was 165 mph.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:14 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 03:18 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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.

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:28 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.