Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2024

EF0 tornado, Freestone, Texas, December 24, 2024

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Freestone County on December 24, 2024, touching down at 5:32 PM CST and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
December 24, 2024
Touchdown
5:32 PM CST (23:32 UTC)
Lifted
5:33 PM CST (23:33 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Freestone County
Touchdown point
31.532, -96.281
Lift-off point
31.536, -96.274
Record number
2412241732-01

The damage survey

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed along a Pacific cold front as it and an upper level trough swept through the Plains on Christmas Eve 2024. The system produce a few severe storms across Central Texas and flash flooding in parts of North Texas. In addition, a brief EF-0 occurred in southwest Freestone County damaging 2 properties.

A brief tornado formed in southwest Freestone County, just west of the Freestone Community. The tornado traveled a distance of approximately one half mile, and primarily affected two structures off of Freestone County Road 841. Both structures were residences. The first residence had a portion of the aluminum cladding from its roof removed by the tornado. A nearby outbuilding and wellhouse also sustained damage. The tornado also impacted a nearby manufactured home, pushing the structure slightly off of its foundation piers. Some damage to the residence's porch roofs also occurred. The tornado subsequently crossed Freestone County Road 841, damaging large limbs on several hardwood and softwood trees lining the road. The tornado then crossed into an open field, traveled an additional 200 yards, and dissipated.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

19 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:13 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:13 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningFWD
23:57 UTC00:34 UTCTornado WarningFWD
00:19 UTC02:26 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchFWD
00:32 UTC01:07 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:38 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 173 km from the path. December 24, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2024-12-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 490 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 479 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2024-12-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 186 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
490 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
111 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
479 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
188 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 173 km from the path. December 25, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2024-12-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 54 joules per kilogram, CIN -169, lifted condensation level 741 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2024-12-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 56 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
54 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-169 J/kg
Surface CAPE
73 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
741 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mexia Limestone (LXY), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:35 UTC73.262150° 8 kt1015.2
21:55 UTC7262120° 5 kt1015.2
22:15 UTC71.462.2150° 3 kt1015.2
22:35 UTC70.562310° 3 kt1015.6
22:55 UTC65.360.6140° 4 kt91015.2+RA
23:15 UTC65.762.40° 0 kt1015.2
23:35 UTC63.759340° 12 kt231015.6
23:55 UTC61.358360° 8 kt151015.6RA
00:15 UTC60.358.350° 5 kt1015.9
00:35 UTC60.458.3360° 5 kt1015.6-RA
00:55 UTC60.358340° 5 kt1015.9-RA
01:15 UTC59.557.70° 0 kt1016.3

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:33 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:32 UTCTORNADO6 S TeagueFreestone, TXA brief tornado formed in southwest Freestone County, just west of the Freestone Community. The tornado traveled a distance of approximately one half mile, and primarily affected two structures off of Freestone County Ro

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.