EF1 tornado, Lake Pat Cleburne to Rio Vista, Texas, April 28, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 28, 2026

Touchdown

7:10 PM CDT (00:10 UTC)

Lifted

7:15 PM CDT (00:15 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

32.252, -97.365

Lift-off point

32.238, -97.335

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS FWD

The office's name for it

Rio Vista Tornado

Survey last edited

June 20, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A second tornado from the same storm impacted a small area east of Rio Vista. Mostly scattered tree damage and damage to lightweight metal objects was observed along the path of the tornado. The tornado started near Hill Ct northeast of Rio Vista. One manufactured home off CR 1205 lost most of its roof covering, and the roof of a nearby home on CR 1107 was also partially removed. The tornado continued southeast crossing FM 916 and dissipating near CR 1204 and 1104. This tornado was rated a low-end EF-1 with winds of 90 mph.

Written by NWS FWD in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

A shortwave trough, slow moving cold front, and continued presence of a dryline resulted in additional severe thunderstorm development on April 28 and 29. Large hail was the primary severe weather occurrence. Destructive hail damaged several locations in North and Central Texas with hail sizes ranging up to 3.5-4 inch hail in Johnson County. On April 28th 4 tornadoes occurred including an EF-3 tornado in Mineral Wells.

A tornado formed in Byron Stewart Park, west of Cleburne, crossed onto Lake Pat Cleburne, and exited the lake on the southeast side. Tree damage was observed in the park and video evidence shows the tornado over the lake. On the southeast side of the lake along Lakeshore Dr, a small porch was damaged and overhead doors were damaged in an RV storage garage. This tornado was rated EF-0 with maximum winds of 80 mph.

A second tornado from the same storm that produced an EF-0 tornado near Lake Pat Cleburne, and impacted a small area east of Rio Vista. Mostly scattered tree damage and damage to lightweight metal objects was observed along the path of the tornado. The tornado started near Hill Ct northeast of Rio Vista. One manufactured home off CR 1205 lost most of its roof covering, and the roof of a nearby home on CR 1107 was also partially removed. The tornado continued southeast crossing FM 916 and dissipating near CR 1204 and 1104. This tornado was rated a low-end EF-1 with winds of 90 mph.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:53 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:19 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:10 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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 Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:07 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 2026 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

15 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.