Families Displaced After Oklahoma Tornado
A three-day siege of severe thunderstorms and high winds downed trees,knocked out power and spawned tornadoes from the Plains to the Southeast and mid-Atlantic states in early March 2025.
The northern aspect of this intense,expansive storm system was in the form of a blizzard in the Northern Plains and upper Midwest. For more on that,we have a winter storm recap here.
Over 500 reports of severe thunderstorm damage,high winds,hail and reported tornadoes were received by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center from the night of March 3 through March 5. That included 30 confirmed tornadoes from Oklahoma and Texas to North Carolina and southeast Virginia.
Before sunrise on March 4,a line of severe storms produced damage across parts of eastern and southern Oklahoma into northern Texas. An EF1 tornado tore through parts of Ada,Oklahoma. Another EF1 tornado touched down in Pontotoc County,Oklahoma,and heavily damaged the Union Valley volunteer fire station.
In the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex,a large paint plant was damaged in the suburb of Lewisville by winds estimated at 75 mph. Winds estimated at 105 mph damaged homes and trees in Haltom City,and 90 mph straight line winds collapsed a warehouse's cinder block wall and bend power poles in Richland Hills. A brief EF1 tornado produced damage over a few city blocks in Irving.
(Further beef up your forecast with our detailed,hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro experience.)
The only strong tornado of the event was an EF2 twister in Wayne County,Mississippi,which injured four in two separate incidents of manufactured homes either destroyed or rolled in what was the county's second strong tornado in a span of just 20 days.
Strong winds also occurred well ahead (to the east) of and also well behind (to the west and north of) the line of severe thunderstorms. Over 1,300 reports of high wind gusts and another 335 reports of wind damage not from thunderstorms were received by the National Weather Service over 72 hours from March 4 through 6 in the U.S.
The strongest gusts were 96 mph at the Cove Mountain Wind Tower in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and 93 mph near Hugoton,Kansas.
Wind damage was reported in Lubbock,Texas,a roof was blown off a home in Dickens,about 60 miles east of Lubbock,and 84 mph winds blew trees onto homes in Garden City,Kansas.
Perhaps most surreal was a plume of lofted dust from western Texas and eastern New Mexico that surged into Dallas-Ft. Worth,Waco,even College Station,Texas less than 12 hours after severe thunderstorms moved through on March 4.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at www.weathernow24.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X (formerly Twitter),Threads,Facebook and Bluesky.
