EF3 tornado, Red Springs to Seymour Muni Arpt, Texas, April 29, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 29, 2025

Touchdown

6:58 PM CDT (23:58 UTC)

Lifted

7:04 PM CDT (00:04 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.7 miles (6.0 km)

Path width

650 yards (594 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$400,000

County

Baylor County

Touchdown point

33.668, -99.294

Lift-off point

33.650, -99.253

Record number

2504291758-01

82 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Chaser reports damage to outbuilding. Debris was likely what was in the road.
• Several large limbs snapped to the SE
• Anchored apparatus pulled out of ground
• Large hardwood limbs about 10-20% of trees

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

Multiple rounds of severe convection and flooding occurred from the predawn hours of the 29th into morning hours of the 30th. The most significant round of severe thunderstorm activity occurred across portions of western-north Texas on the evening of the 29th, where intense supercell thunderstorms produced very large hail, damaging wind gusts and a pair of significant (EF-2+) tornadoes.

This tornado moved into Baylor County from Knox County along and north of US Highway 82. The tornado moved east-northeast to northwest of Red Springs, and then turned east-southeast along County Road 140. In Baylor County, a metal building at a feed lot was heavily damaged and a wind turbine was damaged. Northwest and north of Red Springs, a barn was damaged, two outbuilding were destroyed and ranch implements were tossed. Tree damage occurred at numerous places along the path. The tornado dissipated about 2 miles east-northeast of Red Springs.

This tornado developed just north of FM-1919 about 2.5 miles northwest of the Seymour airport and initially moved south destroying farm buildings and equipment. As the tornado approached FM-2069, it veered sharply and began moving east along and north of FM-2069 damaging the roof of a home and heavily damaging some outbuildings. The tornado continued moving east through the Seymour Municipal Airport destroying hangars, planes and vehicles at the airport. The tornado likely continued east and northeast from the airport, but this area was inaccessible to the ground survey team.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:38 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:28 UTC and running to 05:54 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 20:03 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 Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:59 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

15 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.