Unrated tornado, Bootleg to Hereford, Texas, April 25, 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 25, 2025

Touchdown

10:32 PM CDT (03:32 UTC)

Lifted

10:40 PM CDT (03:40 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Deaf Smith County

Touchdown point

34.850, -102.670

Lift-off point

34.864, -102.680

Record number

2504252132-01

A cold front moved through the combined Panhandles. This combined with increased wind shear, instability and moisture to bring severe storms to the southern portions of the Texas Panhandle. Several tornadoes occurred during the late night into early morning hours of April 25th to 26th. Large hail and areas of flooding also occurred as storms continue to move over the same locations.

This tornado was viewed by local fire department from the intersection of FM 1057 and FM 1058. Per collaboration with radar imagery it appeared to move slowly to the northeast before dissipating. No known damage occurred with this tornado and has been given the rating of EFU.

This tornado touched down near County Road K and FM 1058. It caused damage to a property near this intersection, including some minor roofing damage and a few snapped trees. As this tornado crossed FM1058, seemingly tracking to the north to northwest, it broke a couple of power poles. It looked to continue along County Road K, where it deposited some debris and partially overturned an irrigation pivot before lifting. Given limited damage indicators, track of the tornado is also estimated using radar data. The maximum estimated winds with this tornado was 100mph. Thank you to the Deaf Smith County Emergency Management for their help in the completion of this tornado survey.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:29 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:08 UTC and running to 09:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Hereford (HRX), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cannon AFB radar (KFDX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:32 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

5 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.