EF3 tornado, Sterling City Cld Ar, Texas, May 22, 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

May 22, 2024

Touchdown

3:29 PM CDT (20:29 UTC)

Lifted

3:50 PM CDT (20:50 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.7 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Sterling County

Touchdown point

31.584, -101.103

Lift-off point

31.543, -101.039

Record number

2405221429-01

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

• Multiple broken poles along Route 163
• RV rolled toward the south
• Broken tree limbs at least 4 inch thick; roofing material blown into field
• 300 yard wide field scoured out, grass stripped up, trees snapped, debarked and sandblasted, and tons of dirt redistributed everywhere

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

The combination of a well defined surface dryline, extreme instability, and strong wind shear, resulted in producing supercell thunderstorms across west central Texas. A supercell thunderstorm resulted in a significant hail storm across western and southern portions of the city of San Angelo. The hail stones ranged from golf ball to slightly larger than baseball size. There was major damage to the outer structure of homes, including roofs and windows and many automobiles had significant damage. Another supercell thunderstorm produced a tornado in Sterling County. Other severe thunderstorms across portions of west central Texas produced large hail and damaging winds.

A tornado touched down west of State Highway 163 at a ranch house|on Private Road 127. The tornado damaged the roof of the ranch|house as well as flipped over an RV trailer next to the house.|Between the ranch house and Highway 163, the tornado strengthened|destroying at least two utility poles, severely damaging trees as|well as turning over an oil pump jack. As the tornado approached|and crossed Highway 163, the tornado continued to intensify|damaging several utility poles along the highway and then moving|across a deer lease off Private Road 128, east of Highway 163. The|tornado completely stripped the rocks, the grass, the top soil, and|the caliche roads on the property. Only the stubs of the trunks of |the trees remained on the property. The estimated peak wind of|the tornado was 140 mph.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:23 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:41 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 San Angelo radar (KSJT), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:26 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

4 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.