Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2025

EF1 tornado, Yellowpine to Fairmount, Texas, March 4, 2025

Name: EF1 tornado, Yellowpine to Fairmount, Texas, March 4, 2025
Start: 2025-03-04T16:29:00.000Z
End: 2025-03-04T16:36:00.000Z
Location: Yellowpine to Fairmount, Texas

From Yellowpine to Fairmount, this EF1 tornado ran 5.6 miles across Sabine County on March 4, 2025, touching down at 10:29 AM CST and reaching 625 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

The record

Rating: EF1
Date: March 4, 2025
Touchdown: 10:29 AM CST (16:29 UTC)
Lifted: 10:36 AM CST (16:36 UTC)
On the ground: 7 minutes
Path length: 5.6 miles (9.0 km)
Path width: 625 yards (572 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $10,000
County: Sabine County
Touchdown point: 31.206, -93.824
Lift-off point: 31.243, -93.740
Record number: 2503041029-01

The damage survey

26 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 105 mph.

Convergent damage here. Large pines leaning NW.
Several skinny pines snapped.
A couple of skinny pines snapped.
One pine uprooted along the shore.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

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 strong EF1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph touched down in the Sabine National Forest along Forest Road 144, where numerous softwood trees were snapped and uprooted. The heaviest concentration of damage was near the intersection of Forest Road 144 and Forest Road 144A, where the tornado was at its strongest and widest. This tornado tracked northeast across inaccessible areas of the forest, before crossing Highway 87 just south of the Six Mile community. Numerous additional softwood trees were snapped and uprooted between Forest Road 182 and Shawnee Shores Drive, before lifting within a cove in Toledo Bend Reservoir along Shawnee Shores Drive. The tornado had a maximum width of 625 yards and tracked over 5 miles.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:15 UTC and running to 17:10 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
06:00 UTC	00:00 UTC	Wind Advisory	SHV
14:15 UTC	17:10 UTC	Tornado Watch	SHV
15:40 UTC	16:45 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV
16:33 UTC	16:48 UTC	Tornado Warning	SHV
16:38 UTC	17:02 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Shreveport, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 4, 5:22 AM CST, 5 hours 7 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 4, 5:22 AM CST, 5 hours 7 minutes before

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
522 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

...New AVIATION...

.UPDATE...
Issued at 453 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

Tornado Watch 18 has been issued until 11 AM CST this morning for
portions of Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas, and East
Texas. This is generally north and west of a line from Rusk Texas
to Texarkana Arkansas to Nashville Arkansas. A squall line has
develop and has moved just west of the I-35 corridor of Oklahoma
and North & Central Texas. This line will continue to push
eastward this morning into our forecast area just after daybreak,
with additional isolated convection possible ahead of this line.
All modes of severe weather will be possible, including locally
heavy rainfall. /20/

&&

.SHORT TERM...
(Tuesday through Wednesday)
Issued at 322 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

At this hour, a lee-side surface low remains across Eastern
Colorado, with a trailing Pacific origin cold front extending
across the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. Ahead of this system, a
dryline extends across the western sections of Oklahoma and Texas.
A line of strong to severe thunderstorms has developed along that
dryline and is quickly shifting eastward. In our area, the
increased low-level southerly jet in response to the lee-side low
has resulted in strong gusty southerly winds and a Wind Advisory.
It has also resulted in the development of a warm front, which
has pushed northward into our East Texas zones. Some warm air
advection showers have developed in the vicinity of the warm
front. Eventually the lee-side low will start to kick out into
the Central Plains and the trailing Pacific cold front will catch
up with the dry-line and convection near daybreak. At the same
time, the warm front will continue to lift north and eastward
across the region, along with the associated advection showers.
In wake of the warm front, dew points will rise into the low to
mid 60s which will aid in destabilizing the atmosphere for today's
advertised severe weather event. Models seem to be in good
agreement that the current line of strong to severe thunderstorms
will hold together as it moves into our forecast area. With an
unstable environment expected to be in place, along with deep
layer sheer and steep lapse rates, all modes of severe weather
will be possible with the line as it moves across the region. This
includes locally heavy rainfall as well. There remains the
concern that discrete cells will develop just ahead of the squall
line as it approaches the region. Given the expected
thermodynamics, this could yield strong tornadoes across the
region. The front and squall line is expected to push out of the
region this afternoon.

In wake of the front, the current Wind Advisory will remain in
effect through 9 PM and will likely be extended across portions
of the area into Wednesday. As the aforementioned lee-side low
slowly moves out of the Plains into the Midwest, a strong
pressure gradient will form across the area resulting in continued
gusty conditions. Winds will become sustained from the southwest
between 20 to to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 to 50 mph,
especially across East Texas and remaining zones north of the
Interstate 20 corridor. Current obs and satellite confirm blowing
dust across West Texas this morning behind the convection. The
NASA GMAO Dust model has this dust reaching our area this
afternoon into the early evening hours, so decided to add hazy
conditions to the forecast during this period.

A much stronger cold front will move across the area tonight,
bringing gusty northwest winds and cooler conditions into the
region. Overnight lows will range from the upper 30s north to mid
40s south of Interstate 20. These cooler, drier, and breezy
conditions will remain across the region on Wednesday, with high
temps struggling to reach 60 degrees, despite sunny skies. /20/

&&

.LONG TERM...
(Wednesday Night through Tuesday)
Issued at 322 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

Not much has changed in thinking for the long-term period. High pressure
will settle over the area Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
With clear skies and calm winds, overnight lows will fall into the
30s areawide, with near freezing temps possible in locations
north of Interstate 20. Dry conditions will continue through the
end of the work week, but southerly winds will return as the
surface high moves east of the region, resulting in a gradual
warming trend. By the start of next weekend, a closed upper level
trough will move across the Four Corners Region. Flow ahead of
this trough will become southwesterly over the region. Rain
chances will return just after midnight Saturday morning as
disturbances move along the flow, then increase in coverage during
the day as the upper trough and associated cold front move into
the region. Dry and cooler conditions will return Sunday into
early next week, as high pressure and upper-level ridging settle
over the region in wake of the trough. /20/

&&

.AVIATION...
(12Z TAFS)
Issued at 515 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

For the 04/12Z TAFs, strong to severe thunderstorms will progress
from west to east across area airspace this morning and early
afternoon, bringing torrential rains and potentially damaging
wind gusts. The most likely windows of impacts to terminals are
reflected in TEMPO groups with this package. By mid to late
afternoon, impacts will be coming to an end for ArkLaTex airspace.
GIGs will improve dramatically from MVFR and IFR to VFR with the
passage of these storms. South winds will become southwesterly
then westerly through the day today at speeds of 10 to 20 kts with
gusts of up to 30 kts possible, with locally higher values in the
vicinity of stronger storms.

/26/

&&

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...
Issued at 1215 PM CST Mon Mar 3 2025

Spotter activation will likely be needed beginning around daybreak
Tuesday morning through mid-afternoon.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
SHV  74  45  59  37 / 100   0   0   0
MLU  73  46  59  36 / 100   0   0   0
DEQ  69  38  55  30 / 100  10   0   0
TXK  72  42  57  35 / 100  10   0   0
ELD  70  42  58  32 / 100   0   0   0
TYR  71  43  58  38 / 100   0   0   0
GGG  73  43  59  35 / 100   0   0   0
LFK  74  45  62  38 /  90   0   0   0

&&

.SHV WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
AR...Wind Advisory until 9 PM CST this evening for ARZ050-051-059>061-
     070>073.

LA...Wind Advisory until 9 PM CST this evening for LAZ001>006-010>014-
     017>022.

OK...Wind Advisory until 9 PM CST this evening for OKZ077.

TX...Wind Advisory until 9 PM CST this evening for TXZ096-097-108>112-
     124>126-136>138-149>153-165>167.

&&

SHORT TERM...20
LONG TERM....20
AVIATION...26

In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 4, 9:24 AM CST, 1 hour 5 minutes before

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
924 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

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

0918 AM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     Lufkin                  31.34N 94.73W
03/04/2025                   Angelina           TX   Public

            Report from mPING: Roof blown off.

&&

AEC

Local storm report, Mar 4, 9:30 AM CST, 59 minutes before

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
930 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

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

0922 AM     Tstm Wnd Gst     3 WSW Shreveport        32.45N 93.84W
03/04/2025  M59 MPH          Caddo              LA   Official NWS Obs

            Measured at WFO SHV by ASOS.

&&

AEC

Local storm report, Mar 4, 10:19 AM CST, 10 minutes before

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
1019 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

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

0800 AM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     1 ENE De Kalb           33.51N 94.61W
03/04/2025                   Bowie              TX   Public

            Reports of roofs taken off houses in De
            Kalb. No specific locations given.

&&

AEC

Local storm report, Mar 4, 10:20 AM CST, 9 minutes before

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
1020 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

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

0808 AM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     1 WNW New Boston        33.47N 94.43W
03/04/2025                   Bowie              TX   Public

            Reports of structures damaged in New Boston.

&&

AEC

Local storm report, Mar 4, 10:23 AM CST, 6 minutes before

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
1023 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

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

0924 AM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     2 WSW Bossier City      32.52N 93.75W
03/04/2025                   Caddo              LA   Public

            Social media report of trees down near the
            Shreveport Hilton on N Spring St.

&&

AEC

Local storm report, Mar 4, 10:29 AM CST, 0 minutes before

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
1029 AM CST Tue Mar 4 2025

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

0744 AM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     5 W Daingerfield        33.04N 94.81W
03/04/2025                   Morris             TX   Emergency Mngr

            Tree down on a vehicle in Cason.

&&

Nuttall

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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

4.5 hours before the tornado, 135 km from the path. March 4, 2025.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 155 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -306 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 110 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 718 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 471 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 517 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1
0-3 km lapse rate: 3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

7.5 hours after it, 135 km from the path. March 5, 2025.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -71231 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 2625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 87 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -82 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -295 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Jasper County-Bell Field Airport (JAS), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
14:35 UTC	69.8	69.8	180° 14 kt	27	1001
14:55 UTC	69.8	69.8	170° 11 kt	21	1001	-RA BR
15:15 UTC	69.8	69.8	160° 12 kt	23	1000	-RA
15:35 UTC	69.8	69.8	170° 16 kt	23	999	-RA
15:55 UTC	69.8	69.8	170° 12 kt	32	998.6
16:15 UTC	69.8	69.8	170° 13 kt	24	998	VCTS RA BR
16:35 UTC	53.6	53.6	280° 17 kt	43	1003	+TSRA FG
16:55 UTC	53.6	53.6			1003	VCTS RA BR
17:15 UTC	55.4	55.4	310° 4 kt		1002
17:35 UTC	55.4	55.4	0° 0 kt		1001.7
17:55 UTC	57.2	55.4	250° 4 kt		1001.4
18:15 UTC	59	57.2			1001

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

The radar

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:31 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)	Report	Where	County	Remark
16:12 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 Nw Town Bluff	Tyler, TX	Local emergency management reports tree down on hwy 92 near Dam B. Time estimated from radar.
16:12 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 E Huxley	Shelby, TX	Reports of trees down throughout Huxley.
16:29 UTC	TORNADO	9 Ese Pineland	Sabine, TX	A strong EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph touched down in the Sabine National Forest along Forest Road 144, and tracked northeast across the forest and Highway 87 just south of the Six Mile communit
16:30 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	10 Sse Hemphill	Sabine, TX	Clustering of trees down in USFS land. Possible tornado.
16:38 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 E Jasper	Jasper, TX	Trees and power lines reported down by HAM radio.
16:39 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	10 Se Hemphill	Sabine, TX	Reports of trees and powerlines down, concentrated in area surrounding Shawnee Shore Rd.
16:50 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 Wnw Newton	Newton, TX	Trees and power lines reported down by HAM radio.
17:09 UTC	TSTM WND GST 59	Toledo Bend Dam	Newton, TX	KFDM mesonet.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2025 tornado in Texas Every tornado in Texas since 1950 Warnings in force in Texas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 4, 2025

36 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 4	4:28 AM CST	EF1	Carter, OK	0.5	120	3	$500,000
March 4	4:30 AM CST	EF1	Wise, TX	3.2	250		$750,000
March 4	4:43 AM CST	EF0	Carter, OK	1.2	40		$100,000
March 4	5:03 AM CST	EF0	Pontotoc, OK	8.8	100		$200,000
March 4	5:11 AM CST	EF1	Pontotoc, OK	3.7	200	1	$10 million
March 4	5:16 AM CST	EF1	Pontotoc, OK	1.0	40		$300,000
March 4	5:24 AM CST	EF1	Dallas, TX	0.4	85		$1.0 million
March 4	5:25 AM CST	EF1	Pontotoc, OK	4.8	150		$75,000
March 4	5:37 AM CST	EF1	Johnston, OK	1.6	100		$200,000
March 4	5:46 AM CST	EF1	Hughes, OK	2.9	50		$75,000
March 4	6:06 AM CST	EF1	Okmulgee, OK	1.8	375		$80,000
March 4	6:10 AM CST	EF1	Okmulgee, OK	3.3	350		$40,000
March 4	6:22 AM CST	EF1	Okmulgee, OK	2.7	400		$75,000
March 4	6:25 AM CST	EF0	Okmulgee, OK	3.1	250		$10,000
March 4	6:33 AM CST	EF1	McIntosh, OK	0.7	150		$20,000
March 4	6:51 AM CST	EF0	McIntosh, OK	1.6	150		$50,000
March 4	7:15 AM CST	EF1	Franklin, TX	18.4	858	3	$500,000
March 4	7:44 AM CST	EF1	Morris, TX	9.0	735		$25,000
March 4	7:47 AM CST	EF1	Bowie, TX	18.6	850		$60,000
March 4	7:51 AM CST	EF1	Bowie, TX	18.9	580		$500,000
March 4	8:46 AM CST	EF1	Harrison, TX	1.0	100		$25,000
March 4	9:00 AM CST	EF1	Caddo Parish, LA	3.9	114		$100,000
March 4	9:19 AM CST	EF1	Caddo Parish, LA	0.8	225		$10,000
March 4	9:49 AM CST	EF1	Tyler, TX	0.5	75		$25,000
March 4	10:06 AM CST	EF1	Claiborne Parish, LA	1.8	300		$100,000
March 4	11:01 AM CST	EF1	Vernon Parish, LA	1.1	100		$20,000
March 4	11:27 AM CST	Unrated	Vernon Parish, LA	2.2	10
March 4	11:50 AM CST	EF1	Rapides Parish, LA	6.8	100		$270,000
March 4	12:10 PM CST	EF1	Caldwell Parish, LA	0.4	200		$25,000
March 4	4:52 PM CST	EF1	Ascension Parish, LA	1.8	50		$100,000
March 4	5:16 PM CST	EF0	Saint James Parish, LA	1.4	75		$50,000
March 4	6:13 PM CST	EF1	Plaquemines Parish, LA	5.5	75		$300,000
March 4	6:24 PM CST	EF2	Wayne, MS	4.0	150	4
March 4	6:33 PM CST	EF1	Plaquemines Parish, LA	2.8	75		$10,000
March 4	7:55 PM CST	EF1	George, MS	0.9	30
March 4	11:06 PM CST	EF0	Santa Rosa, FL	0.3	75

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.