Storm reports for May 15, 2013

The strongest tornado of May 15, 2013 touched down on the west bank of Lake Granbury, Texas, at 6:58 p.m. CST and crossed the lake into the Rancho Brazos subdivision.¹ The NWS rated it EF4. In the subdivision, 97 of 110 homes were damaged, four with EF4 damage and ten with EF3 damage.^1,2 Six people were killed there, all in mobile homes. NOAA's Storm Events Database lists $143 million in property damage from the tornado.¹

At 8:12 p.m. CST, a tornado nearly a mile wide formed southwest of Cleburne in Johnson County. The NWS in Fort Worth rated it EF3 with 140 mph winds and found dozens of homes damaged.^2,3 The Storm Events Database lists $124 million in property damage and seven injuries from it.³ Late that night, an EF1 tornado with 90 mph winds hit downtown Ennis. Preliminary counts from local officials showed 55 commercial properties damaged, 20 of them severely, along with 17 homes.^2,4

Across the evening's tornadoes in North Texas, 171 homes had major damage or were destroyed, 513 more had minor damage or were otherwise affected, and 54 people were injured.¹ Hail 4 inches across, grapefruit size, fell in Mineral Wells at 5:25 p.m. CST, and baseball size hail fell near Granbury at 6:56 p.m.^5,6