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EF1 tornado in Cherokee County, Texas

Tornado November 20, 2025 · Cherokee County, Texas

EF1
Rating
0.7 mi
Path length
120 yd
Path width
$200K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 120 yards (0.07 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 100 mph touched down just east of Highway 135 three miles northeast of Downtown Jacksonville, and three miles southwest of the Tecula community near its intersection with County Road 4212. Here, the tornado was at its strongest, where it destroyed a large barn next to a residential home. Metal roofing was thrown several hundred yards to the northeast while also puncturing a large tree trunk, and nearby trees were snapped and power lines were downed. Along County Road 4212, a carport was thrown on top of a garage and a neighboring manufactured home had its back porch blown off and thrown into the yard. Farther east along County Road 4212, numerous trees were uprooted and large branches were snapped. As County Road 4212 merged into County Road 4213, another barn was destroyed, and the roof of a carport was blown onto the driveway of a residence. Further north along County Road 4213, multiple large trees were uprooted and large branches were snapped. A nearby manufactured home also displayed significant roof damage, before the tornado lifted within a field near the railroad tracks that run north back to Highway 135.

The wider storm

Multiple bands of thunderstorms, mostly as multicellular clusters, developed during the late afternoon on November 20th over Central and east-Central Texas, before moving into East Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and Western and Northern Louisiana during the evening and overnight hours. Shear profiles were quite strong with 60 kts of bulk shear, 0-3 km SRH 200 m2/s2 and 0-1 km SRH 300 m2/s2 along with Sig Tor values of 1 were in place across East Texas. Several clusters developed bowing features, with one cluster in particular in Northern Cherokee County becoming severe and eventually developed rotation. This storm spawned a brief EF-1 tornado just northeast of Jacksonville which damaged/destroyed multiple barns, and damaged several homes.

Began near Tucula (31.9978, -95.2293).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1298813. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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