Morton
Morton
Occasionally, tornadoes invoke powerful memories and emotions. Their impact is so powerful that a single word can evoke them. Storm chasers are already referring to the June 5th, 2025, tornado near Morton, Texas as simply “Morton.”
In the early afternoon of June 5th in West Texas, all the ingredients for severe weather were present. But the cap, a layer of warm air sitting 3,000 to 7,000 feet above the surface, was inhibiting severe weather. In the late afternoon, rising air finally broke the cap and an explosive storm developed.
This National Weather Service (NWS) satellite view shows how quickly the massive supercell dominated the sky. CODNEXLAB-GOES-East-local-Clovis-truecolor-22_36Z-20250605_map_noBar-20-1n-1-10.gif (1600×900)
The storm produced eight tornadoes. Our storm chasing group intercepted the storm and witnessed its first tornado near Lingo, New Mexico.
We chased the supercell as it continued, strongly rotating and producing more tornadoes as it moved East-Southeast into West Texas.
The storm was a beast with a radar signature that looked like a hurricane. The NWS radar clearly indicates the storm’s rotation with the “eye” being the location of this Friday Photo’s tornado. 4b3c186edd7e38af1df314c10310152d (632×433)
The Shot
North of Morton in Cochran County, Texas we stared dumbfounded at the sight of a massive wedge tornado kicking up huge clouds of red dust. We pulled over, jaws dropping, while we photographed this beast. The NWS determined that it was nearly a mile wide with winds of 125 mph (EF-2). It also produced hail up to 5 inches in diameter.
Today’s still image doesn’t do it justice. Check out Tom Trott’s short video clip of this monster at https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxTFJ74aCjU-qYVTcKbJrCmR4QrwH7eWvV?si=Neu1x207grQuPCL_
After this intercept, the storm was pulling away from us too rapidly to catch up for more photography. Thankfully, the city of Lubbock was largely spared. There were no fatalities and only 2 injuries associated with this event.
Missing out on the other tornadoes from this storm didn’t matter. The memories and emotions of this sighting will last a lifetime.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus