EFU Tornado — Motley, Texas

2025-04-24 · near Whiteflat, Motley, Texas

Event narrative

Multiple storm chasers published photograph and video evidence of a large tornado that crossed over open ranch land from Floyd County into Motley County. No damage was reported or found with this tornado. However, trees and shrubs were lofted and power flashes observed on chaser video.

Wider weather episode

Another day of widespread severe thunderstorms occurred on the afternoon and evening hours of the 24th. Persistent but weak southwesterly flow aloft increased on the 24th which allowed supercell thunderstorms to produce giant hail. Increased low level southeasterly winds also allowed these thunderstorms to produce numerous tornadoes. Thunderstorms initially developed late in the afternoon along a dryline along the Interstate 27/US Highway 87 corridor and quickly intensified as they moved east. These storms were able to take advantage of a very unstable atmosphere and rotate to generate large hail. One supercell thunderstorm tracked from southeastern Swisher County across a portion of Briscoe County into Floyd County and then ended in southwestern Motley County. This storm was particularly intense producing a long lived swath of hail in excess of four inches in diameter. The largest observation came in eastern Floyd County where a hail stone was measured at 5.20 inches with a caliper. This same storm produced a long track tornado from northeastern Floyd County into southwestern Motley County. Numerous storm chasers observed a large tornado which moved mostly over ranch land or open country producing no known damage. Flash flooding was observed with this storm in and around Roaring Springs as it slowly moved southeastward. Another storm which initially developed over eastern Lubbock County rapidly intensified when it crossed into Crosby County. This supercell thunderstorm became cyclic producing at least five known tornadoes over open country in rural portions of Crosby and Garza Counties. Similar to the previous long lived supercell thunderstorm, this one also produced areas of flash flooding. An NWS storm survey revealed water over numerous roads which made many area roadways muddy and impassable.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.0620, -101.0413)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1243224. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.