EF1 tornado, Cason to Dangerfield Arpt, Texas, March 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

March 4, 2025

Touchdown

7:44 AM CST (13:44 UTC)

Lifted

7:55 AM CST (13:55 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

9.0 miles (14.4 km)

Path width

735 yards (672 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Morris County

Touchdown point

33.103, -94.807

Lift-off point

33.144, -94.660

Record number

2503040744-01

53 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

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

A very mature squall line developed along and ahead of an advancing cold front across the Ark-La-Tex region during the mid to late morning into early afternoon on March 4th. Damaging wind gusts were the primary threat with this squall line, but numerous strong mesovorticies became embedded within this quasi-linear convective system (QLCS). Dew points were in the mid to upper 60s with over 500 J/kg of MLCAPE and 450 m2/s2 of 0-1 km storm relative helicity (SRH). As temperatures continued to warm into the lower 70s with MLCAPE increasing to around 1000 J/kg MLCAPE, the increasing threat of supercell thunderstorm development only heightened the tornado threat. As a result, numerous reports of damaging straight-line wind gusts and several tornadoes were documented across East and Northeast Texas.

This EF1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 88 mph developed within a QLCS and began along Farm-to-Market Road 144 just north of Highway 49 in extreme eastern Morris County. The tornado moved east northeast across Hunt Road/County Road 1235, Green Street Road/County Road 1233, and County Road 3208, uprooting numerous trees and breaking large branches. The tornado continued northeast crossing Wilson Road, Kelly Road, Foster Road, and Old Daingerfield Road before moving across U.S. Highway 259 north of Rocky Branch. More tree limbs were downed as the tornado crossed County Road 4212, Highway 338, and Daniels Chapel Road. The tornado uprooted more softwood trees before lifting on Daniels Chapel Road just east of its intersection with Leeves Road and just west of the Morris/Cass County line. Just east of there, a significant number of large pine trees were uprooted at a property at the intersection of Daniels Chapel Road and FM Road 161. However, the damage pattern of these uproots was consistent with straight-line wind damage and not a tornado. The tornado had a maximum width of 735 yards and tracked nearly 9 miles.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:33 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:17 UTC and running to 16:09 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. The outlook in force was issued at 12:57 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.

Mount Pleasant Airport (OSA), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:41 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

36 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.