EF2 tornado, Berea to Lodi, Texas, March 7, 2026

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 mphthis tornado

   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, as surveyed

EF2, preliminary

Date

March 7, 2026

Touchdown

3:09 AM CST (09:09 UTC)

Lifted

3:14 AM CST (09:14 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.1 miles (4.9 km)

Path width

233 yards (213 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

County

Marion County

Touchdown point

32.834, -94.366

Lift-off point

32.859, -94.323

Highest wind the damage implies

115 mph

Surveyed by

NWS SHV

The office's name for it

Prospect, TX

Survey last edited

March 27, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Around 3:09am on March 7, 2026 a severe thunderstorm produced a tornado near the community of Prospect, Texas. The tornado initially touched down just west of HWY 59 where multiple snapped trunks of hardwood trees were noted. As the tornado quickly continued east, it heavily damaged several structures. A residential home west of the highway was damaged by a fallen tree. Next to the home, a barn was completely destroyed, with only the wooden frame remaining. Debris from the barn along with the barn’s contents were strewn across the front yard and into the highway median and onto the northbound side of the highway. Just to the east of HWY 59, another residential home experienced significant damage after being moved feet away from its foundation. Several large hardwood trees were also uprooted and fell on top of a nearby shed. Just north of this home, another home experienced tornado damage. In the backyard of this home, a small shed was completely destroyed, with contents strewn across the yard, along with damage to vehicles. In this yard, a camper was tossed and rolled into another nearby shed, where several occupants were thrown about and injured. The tornado continued east/northeast, snapping and uprooting numerous trees before moving into additional residential areas on East Prospect Rd. Here, damage to several roofs were noted, and additional sheds and barns experienced significant damage, along with major hardwood tree snaps and downed powerlines. Thereafter, the tornado weakened as it moved northeast away from East Prospect Rd and crossed Scotts Bayou. Some tree damage was then found along Hall Road before the tornado then lifted as it moved as East CC Rd and toward the town of Lodi around 3:14am.

Written by NWS SHV in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

32 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Windows of vehicle blown in, refrigerator from front porch blown into front yard
• RV camper moved off of leveling blocks and rolled over, also moving nearby shed and injuring two people inside the camper.
• Bark loss on trees. Unclear exact cause of debarking

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

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed in advance of a cold front on the morning of March 7th from eastern Oklahoma into western Arkansas. Wind profiles were quite favorable for organized thunderstorms, with moderate deep-layer shear and effective storm-relative helicity near/above 250 m2/s2. Further analysis also indicated a modest increase in MLCAPE overnight into the early morning hours in the pre-frontal warm air regime, as rich low-level moisture was transported into the region from the southwest. Farther south, storms also increased in coverage and intensity across Northeast Texas, within the zone of deep and rich low-level moisture. This led to some intensification of convection prior to the arrival of the approaching cold front, with one thunderstorm producing a tornado near the Prospect community in central Marion County.

Early on the morning of March 7th, a severe thunderstorm produced an EF2 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 115 mph near the community of Prospect in Northern Marion County, Texas. The tornado initially touched down just west of U.S. Highway 59 where multiple snapped trunks of hardwood trees were noted. As the tornado continued east, it heavily damaged several structures. A residential home west of the highway was damaged by a fallen tree. Next to the home, a barn was completely destroyed, with only the wooden frame remaining. Debris from the barn along with the barn's contents were strewn across the front yard and into the highway median and onto the northbound side of the highway. Just to the east of U.S. Highway 59, another residential home experienced significant damage after being shifted feet away from its foundation. Several large hardwood trees were also uprooted and fell onto a nearby shed. Just north of this home, another home experienced tornado damage. In the backyard of this home, a small shed was completely destroyed, with contents strewn across the yard, along with damage to vehicles. At this residence, a camper was tossed and rolled into another nearby shed, where multiple occupants were thrown about and injured. The tornado continued east/northeast, snapping and uprooting numerous trees before moving into additional residential areas on East Prospect Road. Here, additional damage to several roofs was noted, sheds and barns experienced significant damage, along with major hardwood tree snaps and downed power lines. The tornado weakened as it moved northeast away from East Prospect Road and crossed Scotts Bayou. Some tree damage was found along Hall Road before the tornado then lifted as it moved east along East CC Road and toward the town of Lodi.

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

42 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:27 UTC, 42 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:15 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. The outlook in force was issued at 06:02 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 Shreveport radar (KSHV), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:07 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 2026 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

3 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.