Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Watches in 2025

Tornado Watch 229

May 5, 2025Eddy County, Lea County, New Mexico; 29 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 5, 2025, 7:57 PM MDT for Eddy County, Lea County, New Mexico; 29 counties in Texas. It was in force for 9 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 5, 2025, 7:57 PM MDT (01:57 UTC)
Expired: May 6, 2025, 4:44 AM MDT
In force: 9 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 31 counties

Eddy County, NM, Lea County, NM, Andrews County, TX, Bandera County, TX, Crane County, TX, Crockett County, TX, Ector County, TX, Edwards County, TX, Gaines County, TX, Glasscock County, TX, Irion County, TX, Kerr County, TX, Kimble County, TX, Kinney County, TX, Loving County, TX, Martin County, TX, Midland County, TX, Pecos County, TX, Reagan County, TX, Real County, TX, Reeves County, TX, Schleicher County, TX, Sterling County, TX, Sutton County, TX, Terrell County, TX, Tom Green County, TX, Upton County, TX, Uvalde County, TX, Val Verde County, TX, Ward County, TX, Winkler County, TX

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 37 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:00 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 50%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 60%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

43 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 5, 7:58 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	47 min
May 5, 7:59 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Crockett, Sutton	61 min
May 5, 8:11 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Andrews	64 min
May 5, 8:23 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy, Lea	67 min
May 5, 8:40 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Andrews	24 min
May 5, 8:42 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy, Lea	63 min
May 5, 8:48 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Andrews	3 hr
May 5, 8:52 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy, Lea	53 min
May 5, 8:58 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Crockett, Schleicher, Sutton	43 min
May 5, 9:09 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Andrews, Dawson, Gaines	24 min
May 5, 9:10 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Eddy	3 hr
May 5, 9:20 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy	55 min
May 5, 9:25 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy, Lea	65 min
May 5, 9:32 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	58 min
May 5, 10:03 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MAF	Lea	30 min
May 5, 10:17 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Pecos, Upton	58 min
May 5, 10:19 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	42 min
May 5, 10:22 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	38 min
May 5, 10:23 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	37 min
May 5, 10:31 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos, Reeves, Ward	29 min
May 5, 10:34 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Ector, Ward, Winkler	56 min
May 5, 10:54 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy, Lea	66 min
May 5, 10:58 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Ector, Loving, Pecos, Reeves, Ward and 1 more	47 min
May 5, 11:06 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Dawson, Gaines	24 min
May 5, 11:08 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos, Upton	67 min
May 5, 11:26 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Crockett	64 min
May 5, 11:27 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Crane, Pecos, Reeves, Ward	16 min
May 5, 11:32 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Andrews, Ector, Martin, Midland	31 min
May 5, 11:35 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Lea	3 hr
May 5, 11:39 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	66 min
May 5, 11:42 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Pecos, Ward	63 min
May 5, 11:55 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Crockett, Schleicher	65 min
May 6, 12:01 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos	14 min
May 6, 12:23 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos	67 min
May 6, 12:40 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Ector, Midland, Upton	65 min
May 6, 12:56 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Schleicher	64 min
May 6, 1:24 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	SJT	Schleicher, Tom Green	66 min
May 6, 1:47 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Glasscock, Midland, Reagan, Upton	58 min
May 6, 2:04 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Concho, Tom Green	56 min
May 6, 2:05 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Tom Green	55 min
May 6, 3:06 AM MDT	Tornado Warning	SJT	Irion	39 min
May 6, 3:24 AM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	SJT	Tom Green	3 hr
May 6, 3:43 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Coke, Runnels, Tom Green	62 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 38 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 769 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -87 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1323 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 72 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 279 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 544 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.1
Supercell composite: 13.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 6, 1:15 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Lea, Quay, Roosevelt	90 min
May 5, 7:27 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Crane, Crockett, Ector, Irion, Midland, Pecos and 5 more	2 hr
May 5, 10:30 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Crane, Crockett, Loving, Pecos, Reeves, Terrell and 3 more	2 hr
May 6, 1:33 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Coke, Concho, Crane, Crockett, Edwards, Gillespie and 23 more	87 min
May 6, 2:31 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bandera, Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Brown, Burnet and 48 more	8 hr
May 6, 4:06 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Comanche, Concho and 19 more	84 min
May 6, 5:11 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bandera, Bastrop, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Brazos and 27 more	3 hr
May 6, 6:55 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clay, Comanche, Cooke, Denton, Eastland, Erath and 11 more	95 min
May 6, 7:13 AM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Austin, Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Brazos, Burleson and 37 more	12 hr
May 6, 8:17 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Bosque, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis and 18 more	58 min
May 6, 8:53 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anderson, Bosque, Camp, Cass, Cherokee, Collin and 30 more	6 hr
May 6, 9:50 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Austin, Bastrop, Bell, Brazos, Burleson, Caldwell and 20 more	85 min
May 6, 12:19 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Angelina, Hardin, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Sabine and 3 more	86 min
May 6, 12:36 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Angelina, Cherokee, Gregg, Hardin, Harrison, Jasper and 11 more	8 hr
May 6, 2:48 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Angelina, Austin, Brazos, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette and 25 more	87 min
May 6, 5:01 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Hardin, Jasper, Newton, Orange	119 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Texas, 2025 Tornado Watches in New Mexico, 2025 Every tornado watch in 2025

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.