Jones County tornado classified as EF3 by National Weather Service
Bigger isn't always better.
Thursday's twister that damaged several homes west of Hawley and injured four people was classified as an EF3 tornado Monday by the National Weather Service Office in San Angelo. Based upon their survey, windspeed inside the tornado reached 165 miles per hour.
The range for an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, according to meteorologist Mike Castillo who was on one of the two teams surveying the damage on Friday, is 136-165 mph.
"It was a strong EF3," he said. "If we had determined that the winds were actually greater than 165, it would have been an EF4 tornado."
Last year's storm on the other side of Jones County between Funston and Hawley was an EF2. The May 18, 2019 tornado which damaged several homes in Abilene, including Willowcreek Rehab and Nursing, along with the former location of Dance Discovery Studios, was also rated an EF2.
The determination of the windspeed is done by inspecting the damage to buildings and other property, taking into account variables such as the materials, quality of construction, if the roof was removed and if the walls were still standing.
"The tornado was part of a cyclical supercell that moved southeast through Jones County just west of U.S. 277," Castillo said, reading from their report. "The tornado that produced damage dropped just north of County Road 460 and moved southeast before causing damage to metal outbuildings on two properties.
"It continued southeast and turned to the south-southwest where it damaged a home and snapped some trees and wooden power poles. It then continued southwest before completely destroying a home that was under construction.
"It also threw several trucks and a trailer about 100 yards, crossing County Road 458. Continuing southwestward, the tornado completely destroyed another house and injured a family of four. The tornado made one more turn southeast where it hit a small neighborhood.
"In the neighborhood, it caused roof damage to a few homes and outbuildings before the tornado moved out of the neighborhood. It took most of the roof off of a house and caused some of the walls to collapse. It also destroyed a metal garage and heavily damaged an attached metal outbuilding.
"Then the tornado crossed Farm to Market Road 605 before dissipating shortly thereafter."
Castillo said they estimated the tornado traveled just over three miles Thursday evening.
"(The track was) rural. It's hard to determine the exact width if there was no damage to areas outside of the locations that we surveyed," Castillo said. "But based on the damage, we determined a width of about 210 yards.
"But it could have been larger than that."
While there were reports of other tornados, the one that struck Hodges was the only one with documented damage. There were other tornado reports in Coke County as they were performing their survey in Jones County on Friday, as well as some reports from near Ballinger. Any information on those storms will be released shortly.
Castillo said the chances for severe weather don't appear to be in the forecast for most of the Big Country into the weekend. He also cautioned that their estimates of Thursday's storm could change with more information.
"The rating we put out, all this information is preliminary," Castillo cautioned. "This is just based on the survey we did on Friday. We could always change the windspeeds."
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Jones County tornado classified as EF3 by National Weather Service
