EF2 Tornado — Eastland, Texas

2024-05-25 · near Pioneer, Eastland, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-2 tornado developed in southwestern Eastland county and continued towards the east-northeast, where it damaged some trees along CR 376 and CR 240. It continued strengthening and caused significant damage to two neighboring properties along CR 223. On the first property, it snapped at least two wooden utility poles and the trunks of several large trees. An RV trailer was completely destroyed, where a family of three survived when they left their RV trailer and sheltered behind a small building. Fortunately, no injuries were sustained. On the second property, the tornado knocked over a large RV which resulted in broken windows and a door. The tornado also moved a small, well-built, structure off of its wooden blocks about thirty feet and pushed it into a tree, where it sustained minor roof damage. It also completely destroyed a metal barn along with a chicken coop and snapped some tree trunks. The tornado continued northeast across an open field where it snapped several large tree trunks along both sides of CR 223. After crossing the road the tornado started weakening as it moved across an open field then dissipated south of FM 2731. Maximum estimated winds were 115 mph.

Wider weather episode

Another round of dryline-induced convection took place the night of May 25 as a shortwave trough moved overhead. Thunderstorms were more isolated in nature, but one ambitious supercell produced multiple tornadoes the evening of May 25th. A total of 5 tornadoes were produced by the supercell as it moved across Montague, Cooke, Denton, Collin, and Hunt counties, and one more EF-2 occurred from a separate storm in Eastland County. The most notable tornado of the event was a long-track EF-3 tornado across Montague, Cooke, and Denton counties that killed 7 people and injured over 100, drawing national attention to our forecast area and costing an estimated $20 million in damage. A short but intense satellite tornado was also rated EF-3 north of Celina in Collin County. Additional EF-1 tornadoes occurred in Denton, Collin, and Hunt counties. Storm surveys for this event took 3 days to complete. In the after math of the storms the night of May 25th, dissipating thunderstorms produced strong winds across the DFW Metroplex with measured gusts of 60-70 mph winds causing sporadic tree and fence damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.1515, -99.1051)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1182258. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.