Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2025

Unrated tornado, Kelton, Texas, June 6, 2025

This Unrated tornado ran 0.9 miles across Wheeler County on June 6, 2025, touching down at 11:20 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
Unrated
Date
June 6, 2025
Touchdown
11:20 PM CDT (04:20 UTC)
Lifted
11:22 PM CDT (04:22 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.9 miles (1.5 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Wheeler County
Touchdown point
35.498, -100.119
Lift-off point
35.492, -100.104
Record number
2506062220-01

What the Weather Service recorded

On the afternoon of June 6th, a discrete supercell developed in southeastern Colorado and tracked into the Oklahoma Panhandle and northeastern Texas Panhandle. This supercell produced six tornadoes, hail up to 4.5 inches in diameter, and straight-line winds. Later in the evening a couple of semi-discrete supercells moved into the Oklahoma Panhandle and eastern Panhandles, producing wind gusts up to 90 mph and hail up to the size of golf balls.

This tornado was spotted and reported by a storm spotter near the Texas and Oklahoma state line. It was noted as a brief tornado. No other information is given about this tornado.

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

The warnings

38 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:42 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:14 UTC and running to 09:42 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:14 UTC09:42 UTCTornado WatchAMA
03:31 UTC06:50 UTCFlood WarningAMA
03:42 UTC04:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA
04:28 UTC04:38 UTCTornado WarningAMA
06:22 UTC07:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA

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 forecast that day

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 01:13 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 air that afternoon

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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

4.3 hours before the tornado, 147 km from the path. June 7, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2025-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2337 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 1305 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2025-06-07The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2337 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3851 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1305 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:19 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
03:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGMiamiRoberts, TXPicture sent via social media of a large healthy tree branch snapped.
04:12 UTCHAIL 4.55 Ene BriscoeWheeler, TXReport of a broken windshield on social media.
04:12 UTCHAIL 4.55 Ene BriscoeWheeler, TX
04:30 UTCTORNADO11 Sse AllisonWheeler, TX
06:23 UTCTSTM WND GST 906 Ese LoraHemphill, TXMiami mesonet began gusting severe at 119 AM with a peak gust of 90 mph. Severe gusts ended at 130 AM.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 6, 2025

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 63:55 AM CDTEF1Kingfisher, OK8.2300$20,000
June 64:48 AM CDTEF0McClain, OK1.530$15,000
June 64:54 AM CDTEF0McClain, OK1.3100$1,000
June 65:28 AM CDTEF0Cleveland, OK2.4200$50,000
June 65:52 AM CDTEF0McClain, OK2.350$2,000
June 65:56 AM CDTEF1Mayes, OK4.8300$75,000
June 66:22 AM CDTEF1McIntosh, OK5.6300
June 66:52 AM CDTEF1Sequoyah, OK7.61,100$30,000
June 67:04 AM CDTEF1Sequoyah, OK3.0650
June 67:12 AM CDTEF1Sequoyah, OK4.0650$20,000
June 67:27 AM CDTEF1Barry, MO3.2100$50,000
June 67:31 AM CDTEF1Sequoyah, OK3.6900$20,000
June 67:45 AM CDTEF0Crawford, AR1.2250$15,000
June 67:46 AM CDTEF1Crawford, AR0.81201$500,000
June 67:49 AM CDTEF0Crawford, AR1.1550$5,000
June 66:54 PM CDTUnratedCimarron, OK0.825
June 67:04 PM CDTUnratedHockley, TX0.030
June 67:15 PM CDTUnratedHockley, TX0.030
June 67:31 PM CDTUnratedHockley, TX0.030
June 68:48 PM CDTUnratedHansford, TX0.350
June 68:52 PM CDTEF0Maury, TN2.6175$250,000
June 69:06 PM CDTUnratedHansford, TX1.875
June 69:13 PM CDTEF2Hansford, TX9.5150$120,000
June 610:05 PM CDTUnratedCimarron, OK5.550$2,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.