EF3 Tornado — Collin, Texas

2024-05-25 · near Celina, Collin, Texas

Event narrative

An intense satellite tornado hit a few homes along Prairie Meadow Lane, just north of Celina (in unincorporated Collin County), causing destructive damage. At least 2 residences along this street sustained moderate to high end EF-3 damage (DI 2, DOD 7 & 8) with estimated maximum winds of 165 mph, with roofs and walls destroyed. Several additional homes sustained EF-2 or EF-1 damage along this street.

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 → (33.3542, -96.7565)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1182315. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.