BREAKING: EF-1 Tornado Confirmed in Fannin County Last Night

An EF-1 Tornado occurred last night in Fannin County, just to the Northeast of McKinney & Collin County. This tornado caused the most damage in the town of Leonard, TX. The tornado damaged several homes and sent many shingles flying in the area.

​A local resident, Jill, saw significant damage to her home just before the sunset. The damage included a barn roof lifted off, small trees knocked over, and shingles being put into trees that were still standing. Luckily, there were no injuries reported from this brief tornado. The tornado was warned by the National Weather Service at the time, and North Texas Weather Center was LIVE on Facebook when this tornado occurred.

Credit: Jill Petrzelka

Here is just one photo of the many of the significant damage that occurred to residents in Leonard, TX. This tornado was confirmed as an EF-1 Tornado with maximum sustained winds up to 95 MPH. The timing of this tornado was between 6:30-7:00pm CST. The National Weather Service says that the width and exact length of this tornado will be confirmed later today.

This funnel cloud was spotted just West of Leonard, TX, before the tornado presumably touched down. There was also confirmation of a funnel cloud near Melissa, TX, which is in North-central Collin County.

As mentioned previously, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth issued a Tornado Warning for Leonard, TX. This warning began at 6:24pm, a few minutes before the tornado occurred. The warning expired at around 7:00pm, which is when the rotation dissipated off of radar imagery. The storm also produced quarter sized hail on its path through Fannin County.

At approximately 6:31pm, while Max was live, strong rotation was indicated on radar near Route 69, just North of Leonard. This is where a tornado was believed to have touched down. While Max was live, he repeated, "There is definitely a tornado on the ground".

The correlation coefficient detects whether debris is being lifted up into the atmosphere. At this given time, there was no clear evidence of any significant debris being lifted. Therefore, it was not anything beyond a low-end tornado. Even then, significant damage still occurred to many residents in Leonard.

Here are ALL of the photos that were sent in to NTXWC last night. We appreciate everyone sending in their photos and videos! If you happen to have any other photos or videos of this tornado or any other storm damage, send it to us on Facebook OR email us: dentoncountyweather@gmail.com

Writer: Max

Many photos above were sent in by Jill Petrzelka