National Weather Service Surveys Damage in Blanket

National Weather Service meteorologists visited Blanket on Tuesday morning to survey damage in order to determine the size and strength of the tornado that struck the town on Monday evening.

Hector Guerrero, Mike Johnson and Patrick Doll from the NWS in San Angelo arrived Tuesday morning looking at the damage of the Blanket School buildings, Blanket Cemetery, and a house that was damaged during the storm.

Doll was actually in Blanket, acting as a storm chaser, during the storm and was able to see two wall clouds merge to form the funnel that eventually developed, and from a distance was able to see it touchdown and travel through the west part of town and eventually cross Hwy 67/377 near FM 1467.  The storm, according to Doll, passed approximately 100’ in front and approximately 40’ above his vehicle.  In his distant view, his best initial description of the funnel stated that it descended within 40’ from the ground and was probably 100 yards wide with broader circulation.  This was an initial estimate, a formal report after their survey and research will be completed later today.

Johnson was using a newly developed app for his iPad which geotags photos as they are taken, using an Enhanced Fujita (EF) kit and a geographic information systems (GIS) application which would plot the damage of the path, giving a chance to really visualize the path of the storm by its damage.

Initial survey information led the team to believe that the storm began to the north of the school, on South Broadway, where a tree was split and traveled to the school property, blowing one side of the bus barn in and damaging its roof, then blowing the air conditioning units from off of the school roof, ripping the roof off of the gym and damaging rodeo pens, blowing the debris and insulation into the tennis courts and further into the cemetery and an adjacent field.  At the cemetery, it knocked over two headstones, made a hole in the ground, stripped rock off of wall around a grave and leveled the newly installed metal pavilion.  It then ripped the front part of the roof off of a home on Cherokee Trail, tearing the front porch off which landed in the back yard of the home.  The storm then traveled across Hwy 67/377 at the intersection of FM1467 where the storm then damaged the metal roof of a two story home.

The storm was described as skipping through the north to south path which was approximately half of a mile long.

Although there was some damage, Guerrero stated that the storm was relatively a small tornado.

“Preliminary wind speeds (an educated guess) are at least possibly an F1 tornado from the damage I’ve seen,” said Guerrero.  “It was a relatively weak tornado thank God.”

Some people interviewed in Blanket stated that they did receive weather warnings in advance of the storm.  Guerrero stated that warnings are most important as storms can develop quickly.

“It’s important that people, especially this time of year, get these warnings.  It’s important because these things can form real quick and cause damage,” he said.

Guerrero stated that tornados tend to widen and thin as they strengthen and weaken.  They are most powerful when they are thin.

“We want people to be safe.  Our job here today is to survey and assess the damage and to determine the strength of the tornado using the EF scale,” said Guerrero who explained that damage is surveyed taking into account the build quality of the structures damaged.  “I’m just thankful that it didn’t become worse, like what our neighbors in Oklahoma experienced.”

School officials, students, and citizens were busy Tuesday morning and afternoon clearing debris from the properties affected.  Verizon and Oncor crews were busy repairing utility lines and Brown County Sheriff’s road crews were clearing limbs from the roads late Tuesday morning.

The tornado struck Blanket around 6 PM Monday and no injuries were reported.

To sign up for emergency alerts through Code Red alerts in Brown County, please