EF1 tornado, Whitharral to Smyer, Texas, June 5, 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

June 5, 2025

Touchdown

7:12 PM CDT (00:12 UTC)

Lifted

7:24 PM CDT (00:24 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

3.6 miles (5.8 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

County

Hockley County

Touchdown point

33.632, -102.147

Lift-off point

33.629, -102.085

Record number

2506051812-01

54 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LUB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 127 mph.

• Flipped center-pivot irrigation. Time of damage estimated.
• Turned over center pivot irrigation system. Time of damage estimated.
• Large Siberian Elm trees uprooted this location. Time of damage estimated.
• Single wide home rolled off of cinder blocks. Time of damage estimated.

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

During the afternoon and evening hours of the fifth, an intense supercell thunderstorm moved over the South Plains region of West Texas, producing several tornadoes over portions of Cochran, Hockley, and Lubbock Counties. This thunderstorm also produced widespread damage from very strong straight-line winds and large hail across western and southwestern portions of the City of Lubbock (Lubbock County) before it exited into Crosby and Garza Counties and weakened late in the evening. A cold front stalled south of the South Plains early in the afternoon before returning northward as a warm front. Very humid air returned to the region as the front moved northward and contributed to extreme atmospheric instability by the afternoon. This allowed for explosive thunderstorm development from far east-central New Mexico into the South Plains. This supercell initially produced a brief tornado over far northwestern Cochran County that moved over open country and produced no known damage. Shortly thereafter, the supercell produced a strong wedge-type tornado several miles northwest of Morton (Cochran County), which destroyed multiple large wooden power poles as it tracked eastward, eventually crossing Texas State Highway 214 about four miles north of Morton before dissipating over northeastern Cochran County. The supercell then produced another strong tornado over far northwestern Hockley County, about five miles northwest of the community of Pettit (Hockley County), which was directly observed by mobile research radar. A separate and very brief cone-type tornado was then observed only two miles north of Pettit. The supercell then began to track more southeastward, with no tornadoes observed for a period of approximately 15 minutes. Just as the supercell approached US Highway 385 in north-central Hockley County, it produced another strong tornado which crossed US Highway 385 about three miles south of the community of Whitharral (Hockley County). This tornado destroyed several additional wooden power poles, rolled a semi-truck traveling on the highway, and damaged buildings and trees along its path before dissipating about seven miles east of US Highway 385. The final three tornadoes produced by this supercell were observed as the storm crossed from eastern Hockley County into western Lubbock County. The first tornado developed approximately three miles northeast of Texas State Highway 114 and the community of Smyer (Hockley County), damaging and destroying multiple manufactured homes as it moved eastward before dissipating along the Hockley/Lubbock County line. The second tornado developed very close to the termination of the previous tornado, and damaged and destroyed several homes and buildings as it tracked southeastward and dissipated only about a quarter mile north of Texas State Highway 114. The final tornado produced during this event developed and tracked over southern portions of Reese Center (Lubbock County), toppling large trees and damaging roofs before dissipating just outside the Lubbock city limits. Although the storm did not produce any additional tornadoes after this point, the supercell did continue to produce very strong straight-line winds and large hail, which resulted in widespread damage to homes and businesses across western and southwestern portions of the City of Lubbock. Many buildings within the city experienced significant damage to roofs and windows, and hail up to the size of tennis balls was observed within the city limits. The supercell continued to produce large hail and severe wind gusts as it moved over the community of Slaton in southeastern Lubbock County, with the storm finally weakening over Crosby and Garza Counties with no additional severe weather reports after it moved to the east of the Caprock Escarpment. After the initial supercell thunderstorm moved east, additional thunderstorms developed over far eastern New Mexico and the South Plains bringing more severe storms late in the evening through the early morning hours of the sixth.

An intense cyclic supercell thunderstorm produced a total of eight known tornadoes over portions of Cochran, Hockley, and Lubbock Counties. This was the fifth of the tornadoes. As the supercell thunderstorm approached US Highway 385 in north-central Hockley County it produced another strong tornado. This tornado crossed US Highway 385 approximately three miles north of Whitharral. The tornado destroyed several wooden power poles, rolled a semi-truck traveling on the highway, and damaged buildings and trees along its path before dissipating about seven miles east of the highway.

An intense cyclic supercell thunderstorm produced a total of eight known tornadoes over portions of Cochran, Hockley, and Lubbock Counties. This was the sixth of the tornadoes. This tornado developed approximately three miles northeast of Smyer damaging or destroying multiple manufactured homes as it moved eastward before dissipating along the Hockley/Lubbock County line. At least two manufactured homes were rolled off their foundations and heavily damaged causing two injuries.

An intense cyclic supercell thunderstorm produced a total of eight known tornadoes over portions of Cochran, Hockley, and Lubbock Counties. This was the seventh of the tornadoes. This new tornado formed close to the termination of the previous tornado just before it dissipated. An NWS storm survey revealed that a manufactured home had been rolled off its foundation and completely destroyed resulting in the EF-2 rating. Additional damage to structures was found as far south as the intersection of Texas State Highway 114 and Farm to Market Road 2378 in Lubbock County. The tornado then dissipated in Lubbock County just north of Texas State Highway 114.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:54 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:20 UTC and running to 03:00 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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.

NWS Lubbock, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 5, 6:27 PM CDT, 45 minutes earlier. Its key messages:

• Severe weather remains possible through this evening with the potential for large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes.
• Severe thunderstorm chances remain forecast each afternoon from Friday through early next week.

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
627 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

...New AVIATION...

.KEY MESSAGES...

 - Severe weather remains possible through this evening with the
   potential for large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes.

 - Severe thunderstorm chances remain forecast each afternoon from
   Friday through early next week.

&&

.SHORT TERM...
(This evening through Friday)
Issued at 121 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

Skies will continue to clear through the afternoon and a potential
significant severe weather setup will commence. Uncertainty still
exists with regards to exact timing, particularly as models have
performed poorly this morning. Nonetheless, a warm front continues
to lift northward near the I-20 corridor and a LLJ will gradually
develop over our area through the day. Moisture parameters remain
impressive, with dewpoints climbing into the upper 60s and average
PWATs around 1.75". Perhaps most notable is the pronounced low-level
veering indicated on many of the forecast soundings. This would
suggest the potential for spinning supercells and hence tornadoes.
Large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain are all in play as well.
While storm placement will depend on where the boundary sets up, the
most likely scenario at this time are for storms to develop along
near the TX/NM border and generally track eastward through the
evening. Convective activity will begin to diminish after sunset
with overcast skies persisting overnight due to lingering moisture.
An upper wave will track across the area Friday afternoon/evening.
Combined with moist low-level SE flow, storms are again expected to
develop. While severe parameters are generally not as high as today,
a strong potential still exists for similar hazards.

&&

.LONG TERM...
(Friday night through next Wednesday)
Issued at 121 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

Not much has changed with the long term forecast. The upper high
to our south will amplify and flatten east to west Saturday. This
will keep zonal upper flow through much of the weekend. The upper
high will then retrograde until it is over the eastern Pacific early
next week. Models had originally developed a blocking pattern with
the upper high with an upper trough currently across the Pacific
Northwest, but they have abandoned this outcome for the time being.
Northwesterly upper flow will take hold Sunday into at least late
Tuesday as the upper high moves westward and an upper trough
associated with an upper low over the Great Lakes amplifies. This
will allow for daily afternoon storm chances. While severe storms
will be possible each afternoon, the largest threat will be damaging
wind and heavy rainfall.

&&

.AVIATION...
(00Z TAFS)
Issued at 617 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

VFR conditions with periods of MVFR will occur at all three
terminals as showers and thunderstorms continue to move through
the area this evening. Impacts expected through 04Z. Low MVFR to
IFR conditions could return to all of the terminals around 12Z,
but confidence of this developing and lasting for an extended
period of time is too low to include in the forecast at this
time. Winds will remain west between 10-15kt through 10Z Friday,
then drop to the 5 to 10 kt range.

&&

.LUB WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
None.
&&

SHORT TERM...19
LONG TERM....51
AVIATION...28

Hazardous Weather Outlook
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
123 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

TXZ021>044-061830-
Parmer-Castro-Swisher-Briscoe-Hall-Childress-Bailey-Lamb-Hale-Floyd-
Motley-Cottle-Cochran-Hockley-Lubbock-Crosby-Dickens-King-Yoakum-
Terry-Lynn-Garza-Kent-Stonewall-
123 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the South Plains, Rolling
Plains, and the far Southern Texas Panhandle.

.DAY ONE...This afternoon and tonight.

A Tornado Watch is in effect through 10 PM CDT for the South Plains,
Rolling Plains, and far southern Texas Panhandle.

Severe thunderstorms are forecast to develop across portions of the
Caprock and Rolling Plains this afternoon and evening. Storms will
be capable of producing extremely large hail in excess of baseball
size, damaging wind gusts up to 80 mph, and tornadoes, some possibly
strong. Storms will also produce torrential rainfall, resulting in
the potential for localized flash flooding.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Friday through Wednesday.

Severe thunderstorm chances return each afternoon and evening Friday
through early next week.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

Spotter activation will likely be needed.

In the hours before

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
645 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0642 PM     Tornado          2 SSW Whitharral        33.71N 102.34W
06/05/2025                   Hockley            TX   Emergency Mngr

            EM reports large semi-truck rolled by
            tornado just south of Whitharral.

&&

DWK

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
646 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0642 PM     Flash Flood      1 S Pep                 33.80N 102.56W
06/05/2025                   Hockley            TX   Public

            Report from mPING: Street/road flooding;
            Street/road closed; Vehicles stranded.

&&

DWK

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
648 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0644 PM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     3 SSW Whitharral        33.69N 102.35W
06/05/2025                   Hockley            TX   Public

            Large power poles snapped, tree branches
            mangled.

&&

DWK

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
656 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0652 PM     Tornado          7 SE Whitharral         33.68N 102.23W
06/05/2025                   Hockley            TX   Other Federal

            NSSL observes small tornado southeast of
            Whitharral.

&&

DWK

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
705 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0657 PM     Flash Flood      3 N Pep                 33.86N 102.56W
06/05/2025                   Lamb               TX   Public

            Report from mPING: Street/road flooding;
            Street/road closed; Vehicles stranded.

&&

DWK

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lubbock TX
707 PM CDT Thu Jun 5 2025

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0707 PM     Funnel Cloud     Reese Center            33.59N 102.02W
06/05/2025                   Lubbock            TX   Broadcast Media

            Brief funnel cloud observed from Reese
            Center.

&&

DWK

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.

Levelland (LLN), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:13 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

16 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.