Terrifying moment Texas tornado rips through town before baseball-sized hail pummels residents in latest wild weather

This is the terrifying moment a ferocious tornado ripped through a Texas town, injuring two and damaging six homes in its wake, weather officials reported. 

The tornado was first spotted west of Anson around 6.35 pm on Thursday before it moved south east toward Truby and the community of Hodges and Hawley, a city in Jones County.

The funnel whipped its way toward Abilene in Taylor County, located approximately 180 miles west of the Dallas-Fort Worth, before a spectator saw it near Highway 277 and 605 near Clear Fork Church.

Terrified motorists were seen trying to get out of harm's way as the tornado followed close behind, causing downed trees and power lines, as per the National Weather Service.

By 7:23pm, the tornado hit County Road 494 and Fulwiler Road in Tye before it spun up into the cloud formations, as hail, described by one witness as 'baseball size' fell from the sky.

The ferocious tornado was first spotted west of Anson on Thursday at 6.35pm

A close-up of the terrifying tornado that was spinning on U.S. 277 west of Hawley on Thursday

The area hit with the most destruction was located in the Hawley area, population 579 in 2024, according to World Population Review.

Mike Castillo, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Angelo, told local KTAB/KRBC of the damage the tornado caused.

It is unknown what injuries the two people sustained. 

A group of motorists are seen on the roadway as the wicked winds and storm passed through 

The funnel starts to make its way to the ground 

Large hail was reported included downed trees and power lines 

The skies darkened before the massive tornado touched down as cars were driving on the road

Bob Bartlett of KTAB News was reporting north of Abeline when he saw the tornado touch the ground before it recessed back into the clouds.

'It is pretty amazing what we have seen the clouds directly above us are rotating, and we have seen that rotation which is what they pick up on radar,' Bartlett said, before adding it 'is certainty a possible tell-tale sign of a possible funnel cloud forming.'

 Another KTAB reporter, Noah McKinney, was reporting five miles north of Abeline and Hawley, saw a funnel touch down around 7:30 pm and start to head back toward Abeline, as it grew in size.

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Branson Baker (pictured), 9, escaped from a wrecked truck and rescued his parents when tornadoes battered Oklahoma over the weekend

 

One of the people that experienced the massive tornado was truck driver, Wilson Mesquita of Hawley.

Hawley told McKinney he was ready to clock out of the night and saw the skies get very dark as clouds formed overhead, and decided to drive south to get ahead of the storm.

'I heard a lot of stories about it but never faced one so close to me and this one was very close,' he said. 

When he asked if he could feel it pulling on the truck, he said, 'Absolutely, the wind was so powerful. That thing was spinning, and it was getting dark. It got this sort of funnel shape and that is when I started feeling the truck shaking.'

He described the hail as 'big, baseball-sized dropping on the top hood of the truck.' He added: 'I thought somebody was shooting.'

He also saw 'cars moving around and their alarms going off. 

Mesquita pulled over to Highway 277. He said that he is originally from Florida and is used to hurricanes but never experienced anything like this.

'Hurricanes, you can predict it - this one you can't. It moves freely wherever it wants to go,' he said.

 He called it 'one of the most terrifying experience of his driving career.'  'On a scale of 1 to 10 it felt like an 11. It was really scary.'