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EF1 Tornado — Denton, Texas

2024-05-25 · near Mountain Spgs, Denton, Texas

$4.2M

Property damage

4.3 mi

Path length

1100 yds

Path width

Event narrative

This is segment #3 of 4 of a multi-segmented EF-3 supercellular tornado that began in Montague County, crossed into Cooke County, Denton County, and then back into Cooke County. The tornado was ongoing for about an hour and a half with a total path length just under 48 miles. The tornado was the strongest in Cooke County and resulted in 7 fatalities in Cooke County.

The tornado entered Denton County at 1049 pm CDT time and exited into Cooke County at 1106 pm CDT for a total path length of 4.34 miles. The tornado was initially moving east but then started curving north as it entered its dissipation stage. The tornado entered the county on the the peninsula that includes Ray Roberts Lake State Park Johnson Branch. On the peninsula the tornado caused tree damage and pushed over some campers. The tornado then moved back over the lake and crossed back into Cooke County before dissipating. During this segment of the tornado, it was rated EF-1 with maximum estimated winds of 100 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 → (33.4200, -97.0610)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1182301. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.