EF1 tornado, Red Spgs to Bettie, Texas, April 4, 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 4, 2025

Touchdown

4:24 PM CDT (21:24 UTC)

Lifted

5:01 PM CDT (22:01 UTC)

On the ground

37 minutes

Path length

25.5 miles (41.0 km)

Path width

1,420 yards (1298 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$325,000

Counties

Smith, Wood and Upshur counties

Touchdown point

32.552, -95.337

Lift-off point

32.770, -94.993

Record number

2504041524-01

73 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• RFD surge caused extreme wave action on Lake Gilmer which splashed over the low bridge and eroded the shoulder pavement.
• Awning of school bus loading/unloading zone lifted and blown back to the SE
• Area was not accessible by ground, but KSHV WSR-88D displayed a continuous TDS. Planet satellite imagery NDVI analysis reveals the tornado track moved across this area.

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

A stationary front extended across portions of Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas during the early morning hours on April 4th, but lifted north into Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas during the day. This was in response to an intensifying low level jet that developed ahead of a large upper trough that extended from the Intermountain West into the Plains, which provided the necessary lift across the very warm, moist, and unstable air mass in place south of this front across much of the region. As a result, numerous showers and thunderstorms developed across the area during the afternoon and evening, which produced damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes. As these storms moved repeatedly over the same areas, flash flooding also became an issue across Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas through the 5th, where total rainfall amounts of 4-8 inches fell.

Using a combination of the ground survey and NDVI differencing of high-resolution satellite imagery, an EF-1 tornado touched down in Northern Smith County along FM 2710 northeast of Lindale. Analysis of NDVI differencing revealed that tornado's path through the Sabine River bottoms before moving into Upshur County. Although the tornado's strength was rated EF-1 in Wood and Upshur Counties, the damage through the Sabine River bottoms was rated as EF-Unknown given the inaccessibility to this area, as well as the NDVI differencing of tree damage noted on satellite.

This is a continuation of the Northeast Smith County tornado. This EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 110 mph tracked from the Sabine River bottoms across Highway 80 west of Hawkins and south of West Upper Lake, where a fairly intense and concentrated area of snapped pine trees were observed along CR 3440. One home in this area lost a few metal roof panels. The tornado continued northeast, snapping and uprooting more trees as it crossed CR 3431 and CR 3419. One home along CR 3419 suffered the failure of a large, well-built carport. However, the bottom of the wooden posts supporting the carport appeared to be somewhat rotted. The tornado continued to track northeast, crossing CR 3480 and CR 3525. It entered a large area of open land with no roads, but the Shreveport Dopplar Radar indicated a near-continuous tornado debris signature (TDS) for the duration of its lifespan. The tornado caused significant roof damage to a water bottling plant north of Hawkins, with one injury occurring here to a driver in a semi-truck. The tornado once again moved into a large open area with no roads, but the TDS was still observed on radar. The survey team found the damage path again along CR 3550 east of Holly Lake Ranch, where it widened upon crossing into Western Upshur County.

This is a continuation of the Wood County tornado. This EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 110 mph widened as it was crossing into Western Upshur County across Palm Road, FM 1092, Tangerine Road, Nutmeg Road, and FM 49. It continued northeast snapping and uprooting more trees as it crossed Highway 154, where it destroyed a home at the intersection of Highway 154 and Alligator Road. The survey team determined that the home was not built on a concrete slab foundation and was not well-constructed, with trees nearby receiving little to no damage. This was also consistent with damage recorded along the rest of the tornado's path. The tornado continued northeast, crossing FM 852, before finally lifting along Armadillo Road on the north side of Lake Gilmer. Some interesting damage was noted on the FM 852 bridge over Lake Gilmer where some pavement had been scoured on the southwest shoulder of the bridge. The tornado clearly passed north of the lake and did not cause this damage. However, it appears likely than intense Rear Flank Downdraft (RFD) winds estimated at 70-80 mph induced extreme wave action on the lake, washing up and over the bridge, which sits very low relative of the water. The waves eroded the pavement on the shoulder, evidenced by the erosion pattern, and the piling up of the scoured pavement which was perpendicular to the incoming waves and the RFD.

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 95 mph touched down between the Union Hill and Delrose communities as the previous long track tornado occluded just northeast of Lake Gilmer. A few hardwood and softwood trees were snapped and uprooted along this brief track between Chipmunk and Bear Roads, before lifting prior to reaching Highway 271 shortly before reaching the Bettie community.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:56 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:59 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:21 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

6 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.