EF1 tornado, Cottondale, 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

4:30 AM CST (10:30 UTC)

Lifted

4:35 AM CST (10:35 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Wise County

Touchdown point

33.106, -97.752

Lift-off point

33.106, -97.697

Record number

2503040430-01

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

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

A deep upper trough moving east through the Plains was accompanied by a Pacific cold front, along which a line of strong to severe thunderstorms developed early in the morning of March 4. This line of storms produced damaging winds in the 80-100 mph at times, a few hail reports, and two tornadoes as it pushed east through North and Central Texas the morning of March 4. The damaging thunderstorm winds left notable widespread damage across mostly North Texas. In the afternoon hours following this system, a High Wind Warning was in effect for some of the western half of the region for strong gradient winds and wind gusts behind the front. Gusts over 60 mph were observed.

Widespread damaging straight-line winds occurred across much of Wise County during the predawn hours of March 4th, 2025. Within this broad wind field, a NWS WFO Fort Worth survey team identified a relatively short track tornado north of the Cottondale community. This tornado formed near the intersection of FM 2123 and FM 3552, where a wood frame residence lost much of its roof and internal rafters. The peak intensity of the tornado was determined from the damage at this residence, with EF-1 intensity winds estimated around 110 mph. The tornado impacted two outbuildings nearby, producing EF-0 roof damage. The tornado moved eastward, roughly paralleling County Road 3470 for at least two miles. Along this path, many larger hardwood trees exhibited limb damage, and a few outbuildings, frame residences, and manufactured homes also exhibited mostly high end EF-0 and low end EF-1 roof and fascia damage. The tornado dissipated near the intersection of County Road 3470 and School House Road.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 10:15 UTC and running to 12:34 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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 Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:29 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.