Unrated tornado, Lone Star to Whiteley, Texas, April 24, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

April 24, 2025

Touchdown

7:10 PM CDT (00:10 UTC)

Lifted

7:16 PM CDT (00:16 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.2 miles (6.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Floyd and Briscoe counties

Touchdown point

34.305, -101.365

Lift-off point

34.338, -101.326

Record number

2504241810-01

Another day of widespread severe thunderstorms occurred on the afternoon and evening hours of the 24th. Persistent but weak southwesterly flow aloft increased on the 24th which allowed supercell thunderstorms to produce giant hail. Increased low level southeasterly winds also allowed these thunderstorms to produce numerous tornadoes. Thunderstorms initially developed late in the afternoon along a dryline along the Interstate 27/US Highway 87 corridor and quickly intensified as they moved east. These storms were able to take advantage of a very unstable atmosphere and rotate to generate large hail. One supercell thunderstorm tracked from southeastern Swisher County across a portion of Briscoe County into Floyd County and then ended in southwestern Motley County. This storm was particularly intense producing a long lived swath of hail in excess of four inches in diameter. The largest observation came in eastern Floyd County where a hail stone was measured at 5.20 inches with a caliper. This same storm produced a long track tornado from northeastern Floyd County into southwestern Motley County. Numerous storm chasers observed a large tornado which moved mostly over ranch land or open country producing no known damage. Flash flooding was observed with this storm in and around Roaring Springs as it slowly moved southeastward. Another storm which initially developed over eastern Lubbock County rapidly intensified when it crossed into Crosby County. This supercell thunderstorm became cyclic producing at least five known tornadoes over open country in rural portions of Crosby and Garza Counties. Similar to the previous long lived supercell thunderstorm, this one also produced areas of flash flooding. An NWS storm survey revealed water over numerous roads which made many area roadways muddy and impassable.

Multiple storm chasers published photograph and video evidence of an anticyclonic tornado that crossed from northern Floyd County into southern Briscoe County over open fields.

Multiple storm chasers published photograph and video evidence of an anticyclonic tornado that crossed from northern Floyd County into southern Briscoe County over open fields.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:38 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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.

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:10 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

12 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.