{"id":2546,"date":"2025-04-24T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/?p=2546"},"modified":"2026-02-18T01:29:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T01:29:52","slug":"24-april-2025-matador-texas-tornadoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/2025\/04\/24\/24-april-2025-matador-texas-tornadoes\/","title":{"rendered":"24 April 2025 | Matador, Texas | Tornadoes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This day featured 25-30 kts of westerly 500 mb flow over the Panhandles for 40 kts of effective bulk shear with MLCAPE rising over 2500 j\/kg. Some outflow boundaries were in play with a prominent one moving southbound and eventually setting up northwest-southeast over the southern panhandle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The storm of the day seemed to fire off this outflow boundary southwest of Silverton and produced a tornado at 2315Z, about 20 minutes before I got there. The 12 minutes I spent distracted by the dynamic flying of a cropduster up in the Oklahoma Panhandle contributed to that miss, but not by enough to be totally to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crop duster diversion south of Guyman, Oklahoma \u2014 1952Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Storm regrouping west of Flomont, Texas, after its first tornado, which I missed \u2014 2335Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I dodged southwest of the forward flank and got in front of it in time to watch a new RFD cut slice in and tighten up. As I was deciding whether to surf the cell down the farm grid, a plume sprouted just to the north beneath the hub of the circulation and convinced me to hold off and skirt a bit further to the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New cut of RFD slicing in from atop the Cap Rock, southeast of South Plains \u2014 2347-2351Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Quick spinup as RFD tightens on the rim of the Cap Rock \u2014 2356Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I made it down to CR178 and then back east toward the storm. After pushing through the haze, an impressive, rapidly spinning wall cloud appeared straight ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Catching back up to a rapidly rotating wall cloud at the intersection of CR178 & 271 \u2014 0014Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I turned south at CR271 and started grabbing video and stills as a tornado emerged from the shadows. As it widened, turbulence at the base revealed churning subvortices. Just as I was trying to lock in the video camera on the window mount, the ball head lock nut loosened up and all the camera wanted to do was fall to the side. Getting simultaneous video and stills was huge challenge with that going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tornado beginning to materialize and clearly condensing WNW of Matador \u2014 0015Z.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dirt eating cone behind a shaggy wall cloud \u2014 0017Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Turbulence and subvortices near the ground \u2014 0017Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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