EF1 tornado, Daniels Chapel, Texas, May 24, 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 24, 2024

Touchdown

7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)

Lifted

7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

275 yards (251 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bowie County

Touchdown point

33.527, -94.474

Lift-off point

33.512, -94.448

Record number

2405241805-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

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

A cluster of strong to severe thunderstorms developed across the Middle Red River Valley late in the afternoon through the evening hours on May 24th. Ahead of this convection, surface dewpoints were in the middle to upper 70s while MLCAPE values ranged from the 3000 to 4000 J/kg, as observed by nearby 00Z soundings. In addition, 0-6 km shear was roughly 45 knots with 0-3 km storm-relative helicity around 225 m2/s2. This near storm environment also had 700-500 mb lapse rates near 7.5 C/km, supportive of the potential for supercells containing large hail and damaging wind gusts along with an isolated tornado threat. As a result, a lone supercell was responsible for a few reports of damaging wind gusts along with a brief tornado near the city of New Boston.

A supercell thunderstorm moved into Bowie County in far Northeast Texas around 7 PM CDT on Friday May 24, 2024. This supercell thunderstorm began to rotate shortly thereafter north of the city of New Boston. Evidence of tree trunks snapped associated with weak tornadic touchdown were located along Daniels Chapel Road between County Roads 3108 and 3011 around 7:05 PM CDT. The weak tornado then continued southeast crossing Daniels Chapel Road again near the intersection of County Road 3107 and FM 3378 where more snapped tree trunks were found. The weak tornado then traveled very closely along Daniels Chapel Road as it continued southeast with several more tree trunks snapped, several trees uprooted, and numerous large tree branches downed. The tornado then lifted around the intersection of Daniels Chapel Road and County Road 3010 around 7:09 PM CDT, with the storm continuing as a severe thunderstorm as it began to move east toward Highway 8 and eventually toward the town of Red Bank, Texas. This storm continued to produce strong winds, with evidence of sporadic wind damage throughout this general area. The EF1 tornado had estimated maximum wind speeds near 93 mph.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:59 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:12 UTC and running to 05:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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 Shreveport radar (KSHV), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:03 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

42 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.