EF1 tornado, Mingus to Santo, Texas, May 18, 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

May 18, 2025

Touchdown

7:48 PM CDT (00:48 UTC)

Lifted

7:54 PM CDT (00:54 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.4 km)

Path width

995 yards (910 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$750,000

County

Palo Pinto County

Touchdown point

32.571, -98.372

Lift-off point

32.542, -98.360

Record number

2505181848-01

25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FWD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Small trunks snapped along roadway and on property.
• Metal panel roof on wood beams
• Large limbs and small trunks snapped all along the creek.
• Large limbs and trunks snapped all along fence line of the entire property. Some very large, healthy trees were uprooted.

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

On the afternoon of May 18, scattered thunderstorms ignited over the Big Country, initiated by an upper trough digging southeast over the Intermountain West. These storms formed along a dryline and rapidly intensified, spreading east into western North Texas. Several of these storms produced large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. A total of 6 tornadoes were surveyed were Eastland to Parker counties: one EF-Unknown, three EF-0s, and two EF-1s.

A brief EF-1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 105 mph occurred north of Mingus on the evening of May 18th. Tree damage was noted along Dairy Farm Road, with the most significant tree damage observed on a private property. Very large pecan trees were uprooted, with a few large trunks snapped. Many other large branches and small trunks were snapped across the property. Sheet metal was also ripped off of a metal shed on the northern edge of the property.

An EF-1 tornado formed north of Gordon and moved south-southeast into Gordon. One property near FM 919 and Harlin Road sustained damage to a small building on the property and 2 barns. In the town of Gordon, notable tree damage and power pole damage was observed along with damage to roofs. Most of the roof damage was partial removal of metal panels, leaving some homes with holes in their roofs. The school stadium and nearby athletic fields also suffered significant damage to the locker rooms, weight room, bleachers, scoreboards, and more. One tall stadium light pole was bent in half. In the southeast part of Gordon, a manufactured home was destroyed. In Gordon is where the tornado received its strongest rating of EF-1 with 105 mph winds. The tornado was tracked through tree damage just outside of Gordon to the southeast where it dissipated. Several minor injuries were reported with 4 hospital transports, but all 4 were already released the next morning.

Storm chaser and spotter videos of a rapidly cyclic, multi-vortex tornado was confirmed by scattered tree damage along a path that stretched from Panama Road southwest of Santo to FM 4 south of Santo. For the most part, each of the vortices were relatively shorted-lived, lasting from just a few seconds to up to 30 seconds. At one point, two vortices near FM 4 appeared to nearly rotate around each other before they dissipated. Based on the observed tree damage, this tornado was rated an EF-0 multi-vortex tornado with maximum estimated winds of 80 mph.

Right after the multi-vortex tornado south of Santo, chaser videos showed an additional, larger tornado forming east of FM 4. Damage from this tornado was not found. This tornado will be rated an EF-Unknown, and its location is estimated based on radar and video.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:20 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:58 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:30 UTC and running to 02:57 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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.

Ranger (6P9), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:50 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

42 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.