Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Watches in 2025
Tornado Watch 288
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 18, 2025, 4:30 PM CDT for 38 counties in Texas. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 18, 2025, 4:30 PM CDT (21:30 UTC)
- Expired
- May 18, 2025, 10:46 PM CDT
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 3 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 38 counties
Archer County, TX, Baylor County, TX, Brown County, TX, Callahan County, TX, Clay County, TX, Coleman County, TX, Collin County, TX, Comanche County, TX, Cooke County, TX, Dallas County, TX, Denton County, TX, Eastland County, TX, Ellis County, TX, Erath County, TX, Foard County, TX, Grayson County, TX, Hardeman County, TX, Haskell County, TX, Hood County, TX, Jack County, TX, Johnson County, TX, Jones County, TX, Knox County, TX, Montague County, TX, Palo Pinto County, TX, Parker County, TX, Rockwall County, TX, Runnels County, TX, Shackelford County, TX, Somervell County, TX, Stephens County, TX, Tarrant County, TX, Taylor County, TX, Throckmorton County, TX, Wichita County, TX, Wilbarger County, TX, Wise County, TX, Young County, TX
The radar
The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 21 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:31 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
- 60%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 30%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 40%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 20%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 70%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 70%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 90%
Warnings issued inside it
36 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 18, 4:30 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Callahan, Coleman, Runnels, Taylor | 45 min |
| May 18, 4:44 PM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | SJT | Jones, Taylor | 3 hr |
| May 18, 4:44 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Shackelford, Throckmorton | 46 min |
| May 18, 4:57 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | SJT | Shackelford | 38 min |
| May 18, 5:05 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Callahan, Jones, Shackelford | 40 min |
| May 18, 5:13 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Throckmorton | 35 min |
| May 18, 5:19 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Callahan, Shackelford | 41 min |
| May 18, 5:20 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Stephens, Young | 70 min |
| May 18, 5:25 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | SJT | Shackelford | 14 min |
| May 18, 5:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Archer, Baylor | 23 min |
| May 18, 5:41 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FWD | Stephens | 30 min |
| May 18, 5:41 PM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | SJT | Callahan | 3 hr |
| May 18, 5:42 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Throckmorton | 20 min |
| May 18, 5:52 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Callahan, Shackelford | 38 min |
| May 18, 6:06 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Callahan, Shackelford | 26 min |
| May 18, 6:08 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Eastland, Stephens | 49 min |
| May 18, 6:25 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Coke, Nolan, Runnels, Tom Green | 50 min |
| May 18, 6:42 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FWD | Eastland, Palo Pinto, Stephens | 46 min |
| May 18, 6:55 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Eastland, Erath, Palo Pinto, Stephens | 80 min |
| May 18, 6:59 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Jack, Wise | 46 min |
| May 18, 7:20 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FWD | Palo Pinto | 38 min |
| May 18, 7:45 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Denton, Wise | 60 min |
| May 18, 7:56 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FWD | Erath, Palo Pinto | 34 min |
| May 18, 8:09 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FWD | Hood, Palo Pinto, Parker | 66 min |
| May 18, 8:11 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Erath, Hood, Palo Pinto, Parker | 79 min |
| May 18, 8:21 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Coke, Runnels | 39 min |
| May 18, 8:43 PM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | FWD | Wise | 2 hr |
| May 18, 8:57 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Coleman, Runnels, Taylor | 48 min |
| May 18, 9:11 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant | 21 min |
| May 18, 9:23 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Collin, Denton | 67 min |
| May 18, 9:29 PM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | FWD | Denton | 3 hr |
| May 18, 9:36 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FWD | Collin, Denton | 39 min |
| May 18, 9:50 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Coleman | 40 min |
| May 18, 10:21 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FWD | Collin | 13 min |
| May 18, 10:24 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Collin | 18 min |
| May 18, 10:29 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | SJT | Brown, Coleman | 46 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
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), launched 12:00Z, 9.5 hours before the alert went out and 174 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2434 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -259 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 789 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 133 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 138 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.4
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 7:40 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Atoka, Beckham, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo, Canadian and 33 more | 2 hr |
| May 17, 7:49 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | McCurtain | 6 hr |
| May 17, 9:53 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Choctaw, Latimer, LeFlore, McCurtain, Pushmataha | 2 hr |
| May 17, 9:54 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Adair, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cherokee, Cleveland and 31 more | 8 hr |
| May 17, 11:30 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Creek, Garvin and 16 more | 2 hr |
| May 18, 3:15 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Adair, Cherokee, Haskell, Latimer, LeFlore, McIntosh and 7 more | 60 min |
| May 18, 4:23 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Adair, Cherokee, Haskell, Latimer, LeFlore, Sequoyah | 67 min |
| May 18, 11:40 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Adair, Cherokee, Delaware, Mayes, Muskogee, Sequoyah and 1 more | 2 hr |
| May 18, 3:21 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alfalfa, Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian and 15 more | 114 min |
| May 18, 3:38 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Alfalfa, Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian and 26 more | 8 hr |
| May 18, 5:11 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Ellis, Harper, Woodward | 94 min |
| May 18, 1:58 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Archer, Baylor, Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Concho and 18 more | 3 hr |
| May 18, 6:21 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Callahan, Eastland, Shackelford, Stephens, Young | 54 min |
Nearby
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.