Usually, when a storm does substantial damage, and especially when there's a possibility the damage was done by a tornado, one of our local National Weather Service offices sends a team to conduct a survey of the damage. These surveys are conducted to determine whether the damage was caused by straight-line wind or a tornado, the estimated wind speed within the storm, and the EF-scale rating of the tornado, if there was one.

The meteorologists who conduct these damage surveys receive specialized training based on years of engineering and weather research. Think of them as the CSI's of severe weather... the damage left by the storm is a trail of clues that they follow and examine carefully to help them figure out exactly what happened.

Here's the official statement released by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Fort Worth:

ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON...STAFF FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN
FORT WORTH SURVEYED THE DAMAGE FROM THE WEDNESDAY MORNING STORM
IN BELL COUNTY. BASED ON THE OBSERVED DAMAGE AND OVERALL
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DAMAGE PATH...IT WAS DETERMINED THAT A SWATH
OF INTENSE WINDS MOVED THROUGH THE SOUTHERN AND EASTERN PORTION OF
THE COUNTY. MAXIMUM WINDS WERE LIKELY IN THE 70-75 MPH RANGE...OR
NEAR HURRICANE FORCE.

THE OBSERVED DAMAGE SWATH EXTENDED FROM WEST OF SALADO...ACROSS
SALADO AND LITTLE RIVER-ACADEMY...NORTH OF HOLLAND...AND TO
THE ZABCIKVILLE-ROGERS AREA.

IN SALADO...NUMEROUS TREES HAD LARGE LIMBS BROKEN...SOME WERE
SNAPPED AT THE TRUNK...AND A FEW WERE UPROOTED. DESPITE THE
WIDESPREAD TREE DAMAGE...IMPACTS ON STRUCTURES WERE RELATIVELY
MINOR. SEVERAL STORAGE BUILDINGS WERE DAMAGED...AND A FEW HOMES
SUFFERED MINOR ROOF DAMAGE. ADDITIONAL HOMES WERE DAMAGED WHEN
IMPACTED BY FALLING TREES OR LIMBS.

THE DAMAGE SWATH CONTINUED EAST...WITH ADDITIONAL TREE AND ROOF
SHINGLE DAMAGE IN AND SOUTH OF LITTLE RIVER-ACADEMY. THE MOST
SUBSTANTIAL STRUCTURAL DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED BETWEEN HEIDENHEIMER AND
ROGERS. SEVERAL MOBILE HOMES HAD ROOF DAMAGE OR WERE MOVED. TWO
LARGE BARNS HAD TIN WALLS OR SECTIONS OF TIN ROOF REMOVED. A GRAIN
SILO WAS DAMAGED NEAR ZABCIKVILLE.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE DAMAGE WAS ORIENTED IN A WEST-NORTHWEST TO
EAST-NORTHEAST DIRECTION. THE DAMAGE SWATH SPREAD OUT IN A FAN-LIKE
PATTERN FROM THE INITIATION POINT WEST OF SALADO. WHILE IT IS
ENTIRELY POSSIBLE THAT SOME SMALL SCALE SWIRLS OR TURBULENCE WERE
EMBEDDED IN THE WIND SWATH...THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT A SIGNIFICANT
TORNADIC CIRCULATION WAS NOT PRESENT.

This last paragraph says the most about why a tornado is not the most likely suspect in this case. If a tornado had caused the damage, the debris would have been strewn around in multiple directions, instead of fanned out from west to east. Also, the damage path would have been much narrower. The near-hurricane force winds blew down trees across the entire village of Salado. Most tornadoes are less than a hundred yards wide.

The report does talk about "small scale swirls" and "turbulence". As wind strikes objects like trees and buildings, it tends to swirl around a bit. You've probably seen this if you've stood on the side of your house or workplace on a windy autumn day, and watched leaves or trash swirling around the corner of the building. But these small swirls in the wind pattern do not constitute a tornado.