EF1 Tornado — Smith, Texas

2025-04-04 · near Red Spgs, Smith, Texas

Event narrative

Using a combination of the ground survey and NDVI differencing of high-resolution satellite imagery, an EF-1 tornado touched down in Northern Smith County along FM 2710 northeast of Lindale. Analysis of NDVI differencing revealed that tornado's path through the Sabine River bottoms before moving into Upshur County. Although the tornado's strength was rated EF-1 in Wood and Upshur Counties, the damage through the Sabine River bottoms was rated as EF-Unknown given the inaccessibility to this area, as well as the NDVI differencing of tree damage noted on satellite.

Wider weather episode

A stationary front extended across portions of Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas during the early morning hours on April 4th, but lifted north into Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas during the day. This was in response to an intensifying low level jet that developed ahead of a large upper trough that extended from the Intermountain West into the Plains, which provided the necessary lift across the very warm, moist, and unstable air mass in place south of this front across much of the region. As a result, numerous showers and thunderstorms developed across the area during the afternoon and evening, which produced damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes. As these storms moved repeatedly over the same areas, flash flooding also became an issue across Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas through the 5th, where total rainfall amounts of 4-8 inches fell.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.5519, -95.3370)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1256333. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.