Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2026

EF1 tornado, Uvalde County, Texas, July 16, 2026

This EF1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Uvalde County on July 16, 2026, touching down at 2:58 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

Preliminary. This is NWS EWX's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as Uvalde Estates. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The survey

Rating, as surveyed
EF1, preliminary
Date
July 16, 2026
Touchdown
2:58 AM CDT (07:58 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Uvalde County
Touchdown point
29.166, -99.845
Lift-off point
29.167, -99.845
Highest wind the damage implies
95 mph
Surveyed by
NWS EWX
The office's name for it
Uvalde Estates
Survey last edited
July 29, 2026
Record number
None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS EWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 98 mph.

  • Broken wood pole. Pole farther down the street leaning.

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

The warnings

31 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:27 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:30 UTC05:59 UTCTornado WarningEWX
06:52 UTC08:12 UTCFlood AdvisoryEWX
06:56 UTC07:30 UTCTornado WarningEWX
07:27 UTC08:00 UTCTornado WarningEWX
07:28 UTC08:15 UTCTornado WarningEWX
08:01 UTC08:45 UTCTornado WarningEWX
08:09 UTC08:23 UTCTornado WarningEWX
08:12 UTC23:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningEWX
08:40 UTC09:30 UTCTornado WarningEWX
08:46 UTC09:30 UTCTornado WarningEWX
09:06 UTC15:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningEWX
09:35 UTC10:15 UTCTornado WarningEWX
10:04 UTC10:19 UTCTornado WarningEWX
10:38 UTC11:30 UTCTornado WarningEWX
10:50 UTC11:02 UTCTornado WarningEWX
11:28 UTC11:50 UTCTornado WarningEWX
13:23 UTC08:39 UTCFlash Flood WarningEWX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:18 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 air that afternoon

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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 99 km from the path. July 16, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2026-07-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 891 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 1378 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2026-07-16The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
891 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1082 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1378 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Laughlin AFB radar (KDFX), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:54 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
07:58 UTCTORNADO5 Sw UvaldeUvalde, TXPictures and video of damage, combined with radar data, indicate a brief EF-1 tornado occurred in the Uvalde Estates subdivision. The tornado occurred along Windmill Road, west of White Trail Drive. A wood power pole was
08:18 UTCFLASH FLOOD4 Ssw UvaldeUvalde, TXAll three entrances from Highway 83 into Uvalde Estates have water over the roadway with flooding on all creeks and low water crossings. Highway 83 closed along Uvalde Estates.
10:05 UTCFLASH FLOOD4 Ne UvaldeUvalde, TXHighway 90 closed across several stretches between Uvalde and Sabinal. Multiple water rescues reported between Uvalde and Knippa.
10:16 UTCFLASH FLOOD14 Ene SpoffordKinney, TXWater over Highway 90 near the RR 1572 intersection. Highway 90 closed in this area.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 16, 2026

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

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 168:08 PM CDTUnratedBenson, ND0.930
July 169:04 PM CDTEF0Benson, ND1.8100

What this means

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.

Sources

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.