EF1 Tornado — Wood, Texas

2025-04-04 · near Big Sandy, Wood, Texas

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the Northeast Smith County tornado. This EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 110 mph tracked from the Sabine River bottoms across Highway 80 west of Hawkins and south of West Upper Lake, where a fairly intense and concentrated area of snapped pine trees were observed along CR 3440. One home in this area lost a few metal roof panels. The tornado continued northeast, snapping and uprooting more trees as it crossed CR 3431 and CR 3419. One home along CR 3419 suffered the failure of a large, well-built carport. However, the bottom of the wooden posts supporting the carport appeared to be somewhat rotted. The tornado continued to track northeast, crossing CR 3480 and CR 3525. It entered a large area of open land with no roads, but the Shreveport Dopplar Radar indicated a near-continuous tornado debris signature (TDS) for the duration of its lifespan. The tornado caused significant roof damage to a water bottling plant north of Hawkins, with one injury occurring here to a driver in a semi-truck. The tornado once again moved into a large open area with no roads, but the TDS was still observed on radar. The survey team found the damage path again along CR 3550 east of Holly Lake Ranch, where it widened upon crossing into Western Upshur County.

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 → (32.5806, -95.2860)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1256341. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.