JASPER, Texas — According to the National Weather Service's Doug Cramer, an EF-2 tornado touched down in Jasper Monday afternoon.
The tornado ripped across Jasper during tropical storm Beryl, leaving significant property damage in its wake.
Highway 252 along County Road 356, just south of Jasper was hit especially hard.
One family recalled their frightening experience as the powerful tornado ripped a section of their roof off.
"The top opened up and I was trying to get down, and the wind kept trying to pull me back. So I had to grab hold to the stairs to pull myself down. It's devastating, you know?" said homeowner Cartrell Thomson.
His wife and daughter later walked outside to see their brand new car now under a tree that the tornado ripped out of the ground.
"I knew it was going to hit us but I didn't think it was going to be this bad. I heard my car alarm go off then I came outside and saw a tree was on my car!" said Charitee Thomson.
The “Enhanced Fujita Scale, or EF Scale, assigns a “rating” based on several factors including estimated wind speeds and related damage on the scene according to the weather service website.
When the NWS surveys potential tornado damage they compare it to a list of “damage indicators” and “degrees of damage” so that officials can estimate the range of wind speeds the tornado likely produced.
The original Fujita Scale, developed in 1971, was updated to the “Enhanced Fujita Scale” in 2017 to align wind speeds more closely with associated storm damage according to the weather service.
The scale uses wind estimates based on damage instead of actual wind measurements. It estimates three-second gusts where the damage happened. Officials base these on 28 damage indicators, each with their own eight levels of damage to consider.
It is important to note that the three-second gust is not the same wind as in a “standard surface observation.” Standard wind measurements are made by weather stations in “open exposures” and directly measure “one minute mile” speed according to the Weather Service.
You can read all about the scale and each of the 28 damage indicators of the enhanced scale at Weather.gov.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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