Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2026
EF1 tornado, Guadalupe County, Texas, May 26, 2026
This EF1 tornado ran 2.9 miles across Guadalupe County on May 26, 2026, touching down at 10:20 PM CDT and reaching 70 yards wide. It killed nobody.
Preliminary. This is NWS EWX's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as 0526_NewBerlin. 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 26, 2026
- Touchdown
- 10:20 PM CDT (03:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 10:25 PM CDT (03:25 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 2.9 miles (4.7 km)
- Path width
- 70 yards (64 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Guadalupe County
- Touchdown point
- 29.505, -98.099
- Lift-off point
- 29.503, -98.051
- Highest wind the damage implies
- 105 mph
- Surveyed by
- NWS EWX
- The office's name for it
- 0526_NewBerlin
- Survey last edited
- May 27, 2026
- Record number
- None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.
The damage survey
6 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 107 mph.
- Numerous branches over 3 inches snapped, multiple trunks snapped, trees fallen in numerous directions
- Potential end point. Tornado may have traveled farther southeast, but inconclusive based on lack of access to property.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
The warnings
32 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:48 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:17 UTC and running to 06:24 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01:17 UTC | 06:24 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | EWX |
| 02:48 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | EWX |
| 03:21 UTC | 03:49 UTC | Tornado Warning | EWX |
| 03:49 UTC | 07:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | EWX |
| 03:49 UTC | 04:03 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EWX |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 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.
Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z
3.3 hours before the tornado, 210 km from the path. May 27, 2026.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1734 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -4 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4508 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 877 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 43 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 145 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.1
- Supercell composite
- 11.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
The radar
The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 23 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:22 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Elmendorf | Bexar, TX | Metal sheet barn knocked over along with branch thrown into a kitchen window. Picture shared on Facebook. |
| 02:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Olmos Park | Bexar, TX | Medium to large branch torn off by strong winds. Time estimated via radar. |
| 02:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Kirby | Bexar, TX | Preliminary results from an NWS ground survey and supplemental footage from TDEM and Bexar OEM concluded strong downdraft winds with speeds up to around 75 mph caused intermittent damage to trees and fences in Kirby main |
| 02:57 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ene China Grove | Bexar, TX | Social media photo of a large partly uprooted tree with snapped branches. Time estimated via radar. |
| 03:00 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 4 Sw San Antonio | Bexar, TX | Several vehicles stranded in high water on General Hudnell Drive just before 10 PM. Several high-water rescue calls reported. |
| 03:06 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Saint Hedwig | Bexar, TX | Several tree limbs downed. A carport was blown away and partly crumpled. Time estimated via radar. |
| 03:20 UTC | TORNADO | 3 N New Berlin | Guadalupe, TX | A tornado survey team found damage that supported the existence of a short-lived EF-1 tornado. The tornado may have started just east of Linne Road. The most significant damage occurred north of Kunde Road, with widespre |
| 03:25 UTC | TSTM WND GST 62 | 1 Ne New Berlin | Guadalupe, TX | Mesonet station TWB16 1.1 NE New Berlin (TWDB). |
| 03:30 UTC | TSTM WND GST 57 | New Berlin | Guadalupe, TX | personal weather station. |
| 04:06 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Smiley | Gonzales, TX | Smiley Fire Department responding to possible down power lines. |
| 04:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Gonzales | Gonzales, TX | Downed trees and branches reported throughout Gonzales. A stall tent for the Texas Junior High Rodeo Association state finals at JB Wells Park was damaged. Time estimated via radar. |
| 04:30 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | San Antonio | Bexar, TX | Reports of numerous low water crossings closed across Bexar County. |
| 05:00 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Cibolo | Guadalupe, TX | Numerous roads closed in Cibolo area due to flooding. |
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 May 26, 2026
2 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.
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.