EF1 Tornado — Upshur, Texas

2025-04-04 · near Bettie, Upshur, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 95 mph touched down between the Union Hill and Delrose communities as the previous long track tornado occluded just northeast of Lake Gilmer. A few hardwood and softwood trees were snapped and uprooted along this brief track between Chipmunk and Bear Roads, before lifting prior to reaching Highway 271 shortly before reaching the Bettie community.

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 → (32.7933, -94.9759)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1256349. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.