EFU Tornado — Dickens, Texas

2025-05-25 · near Afton, Dickens, Texas

Event narrative

A storm chaser posted a photograph on social media of a brief tornado over open ranch land.

Wider weather episode

A short wave trough moving out of northern Mexico into the Southern High Plains brought widespread and intense convection to the South Plains and Rolling Plains of West Texas on the afternoon and evening of the 25th. This short wave trough brought the necessary large scale ascent that was missing the past several days to create the more widespread activity on the 25th. At the same time, a slow moving cold front was moving southward through the southern Texas Panhandle and a dryline was positioned across the central South Plains. Very warm temperatures in the 90s allowed for rapid destabilization of the atmosphere underneath a weak cap. The cap would be overcome early in the afternoon due to the strong heating. A very moist lower atmosphere also allowed for mixed layer instability values to rise in excess of 2500 J/kg. This led to explosive convective development beginning early in the afternoon. Areas across the Rolling Plains saw a majority of the severe weather this day including a hail stone estimated to be six inches in diameter near Afton (Dickens County). Several swaths of up to baseball size hail were observed across the region. The same storm that produced gargantuan hail also produced severe winds destroying several power poles along US Highway 83 north of Guthrie (King County). A brief tornado was also observed over open ranch land in Dickens County with this supercell thunderstorm. A storm merger in southern Motley County brought extremely heavy rainfall near the Roaring Springs Ranch Club near Texas Highway State 70. As a result, rapid runoff allowed water to flow within the South Pease River (Tongue River) in southern Motley County and was reportedly over the road where this river met Texas State Highway 70.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.7902, -100.6831)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1254140. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.