EF1 tornado, Fincastle to Teaselville, Texas, May 23, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

May 23, 2024

Touchdown

7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)

Lifted

7:10 PM CDT (00:10 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.3 miles (6.9 km)

Path width

480 yards (439 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

6

Property damage

$300,000

Counties

Henderson and Smith counties

Touchdown point

32.119, -95.501

Lift-off point

32.157, -95.454

Record number

2405231806-01

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

• Collapsed roofs on multiple marinas (6)
• Convergent pattern in this area
• 2 RVs flipped over with branches snapped showing a convergent pattern
• Trunks snapped midway to top of trees across the Bay Area

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

With a highly unstable airmass in place, a meandering front, a dryline, and a shortwave trough all worked together to generate multiple rounds of thunderstorms May 23 and 24. In addition to large hail and damaging winds, multiple tornadoes also occurred along with a few instances of flash flooding. A total of 6 tornadoes occurred in Central and East Texas: 2 EF-1s, 3 EF-0s, and 1 EF-U.

A few discrete supercells developed late in the afternoon through the early evening hours on May 23rd along an advancing dryline from North Central Texas into East Texas. These thunderstorms developed in an environment with steep mid-level lapse rates ranging from 7-8 C/km. Surface temperatures in the upper 80s to lower 90s along with dewpoints in the lower to mid 70s yielded a narrow axis of extreme buoyancy just ahead of the dryline. The 0-1 km storm-relative helicity (SRH) was estimated via to be near 100-200 m2/s2. A corridor of stronger south southeast surface flow juxtaposed with the instability axis, combined with a gradual increase in the low-level jet into the evening and enhanced backing near the dryline, provided for a locally enhanced low level shear and more favorable tornadic environment. As a result, a tornado occurred within a supercell across far southwestern parts of Smith County along with a few localized severe damaging wind gusts.

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph touched down near an inlet area of Lake Palestine west of Boles Road just southwest of Coffee City. This tornado largely stayed over the water as a waterspout, and it briefly came ashore across the Lake Palestine Resort just west of Highway 155. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted at the resort, with several RV's flipped over, and multiple metal canopies at the marina completely collapsed. This tornado then moved back over water as a waterspout again as it shifted north-northeast, before moving ashore again across a small neighborhood behind the Lake Palestine Motor Inn. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted, with at least one large hardwood tree having fallen onto a two story home. The tornado then crossed FM 3506 and into the Briarwood Bay subdivision, where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted (DI 27, DOD 4). It was here where the tornado was strongest and widest (480 yards), before weakening and narrowing as it moved across the northern end of the subdivision along the lake. The tornado then moved back over water again as a waterspout, crossing into Smith County at 709 pm CDT. A total of 6 injuries occurred with this tornado, but only 2 people needed transport to the local hospital. Information on the damage in Smith County can be found in a Storm Data separate entry. In Henderson County, this tornado was rated an EF-1 with maximum winds of 105 mph, and tracked for 2.69 miles before crossing into Smith County.

This is a continuation of the Southeast Henderson County tornado. This tornado moved across Lake Palestine as a waterspout as it crossed into extreme Southwest Smith County into Dogwood City along Highway 155, where a few small trees were uprooted and multiple large limbs were snapped. This tornado and associated damage continued to narrow as it crossed Highway 155, but still topped a few trees along County Road 1170, snapping several large branches and partially snapping a power pole, downing a power line across Lakeway Circle. The tornado then lifted as it moved into an inlet along Lake Palestine just west of Emerald Bay. The estimated maximum winds associated with the entire tornado track from Southeast Henderson County was 105 mph, although winds in extreme Southwest Smith County were estimated near 85 mph. The estimated maximum path width of the tornado was 480 yards, which was found in the Briarwood Bay subdivision in Coffee City in extreme Southeast Henderson County.

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.

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 19:50 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.

Tyler/Pounds Field (TYR), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 158 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:05 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

26 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.