EF2 tornado, Paluxy to Thorp Spg, Texas, April 19, 2025

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF2

Date

April 19, 2025

Touchdown

8:55 PM CDT (01:55 UTC)

Lifted

9:26 PM CDT (02:26 UTC)

On the ground

31 minutes

Path length

13.6 miles (21.9 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3.0 million

County

Hood County

Touchdown point

32.298, -97.972

Lift-off point

32.489, -97.917

Record number

2504191955-01

44 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Large tree branches down. Old tank was apparently damaged previously.
• From a public phone call - Large tree branches snapped, chicken coop flipped, trash cans damaged the fence.
• Several trees snapped that blocked Loftin Road. Crews still clearing the road two days later on April 21.
• Trees blown down to the north on the west side of Cass Road in this area on satellite imagery

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

Multiple upper level shortwaves moved overtop the Plains contributing to the development of severe storms near and along a cold front and dryline on and off between the 18th and 20th. Large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding, and tornadoes were all observed, particularly on the 19th. A total of 12 tornadoes occurred along and east of Highway 281 causing considerable damage: 1 EF-2, 5 EF-1s, and 6 EF-0s.

An EF-2 tornado with maximum winds upwards of 115 mph touched down along the Hood/Erath County line around 4.2 miles northwest of Paluxy just south of Loftin Road. It then tracked northward before finally lifting 5.4 miles west of Thorp Spring. This tornado blew a 125 year old farm house several feet off of its foundation causing heavy damage to the home, snapped dozens of large trees in the area, and destroyed an outbuilding nearby. A woman was in the home when the tornado struck but was not injured. The tornado then moved north-northeast toward Glenn Cemetery Road, breaking some large tree branches. As the tornado continued north across US Highway 377 at Campbell Road, a side barn and house had metal roofing torn off which was scattered and blown up to 1/2 mile away across fields. The tornado continued north along Campbell Road and heavily damaged a double-wide mobile home roof and siding, a couple of RVs and outbuildings, and blew down several trees. Additional damage was found 2.5 miles northwest of Tolar where more large tree branches were broken on Tolar Highway. Several more trees and tree branches were blown down as the tornado weakened and crossed Lipan Highway, Stonehill Court, and Ridge Court before it dissipated.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:45 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:22 UTC and running to 04:39 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:04 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 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.

Granbury (GDJ), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:55 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

27 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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