Tornado, Jasper
- When
- October 23, 6:30 PM CST to 6:40 PM CST
- Where
- Jasper County, Jasper to 7 mi SE of Jasper
- Rating
- F1
- Path length
- 5 mi
- Path width
- 20 yd
- Injuries
- 2 direct, 0 indirect
- Property damage
- $100,000
- Coordinates
- 30.850, -94.080
Tornado in Texas, October 23, 1997
An F1 tornado touched down near FM 252, around 7 miles southwest of Jasper at 7:30 pm, and moved northeast, ripping down trees and power lines. As it crossed Highway 96 in the Zion Hill area, it picked up a mobile home and rolled it uphill for 100 yards, before it ran into a tree.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Property damage
- $100,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS LCH wrote it up.
An F1 tornado touched down near FM 252, around 7 miles southwest of Jasper at 7:30 pm, and moved northeast, ripping down trees and power lines. As it crossed Highway 96 in the Zion Hill area, it picked up a mobile home and rolled it uphill for 100 yards, before it ran into a tree. Two people inside the mobile home escaped with minor injuries by climbing in their bathtub just before the tornado struck. The storm then continued to the northeast and dissipated around 4 miles southeast of Jasper, along US Highway 190 in the Holly Springs area, where it damaged the roof of one home and destroyed a barn.
The radar
The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:29 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes and Hail in Texas, October 23, 1997
- Tornado in Louisiana, October 23, 1997
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Mississippi, October 23 to 24, 1997
- Tornado and Hail in Texas, October 23, 1997
- Tornado in Texas, October 23, 1997
- Winter Storm and Lightning Strike in Utah, October 23 to 24, 1997
- Tornado in Louisiana, October 23, 1997
- Cold in West Virginia, October 23, 1997
- Tornado in Louisiana, October 23, 1997
- Winter Storm in Wyoming, October 23 to 25, 1997
- Flash Flooding and Hail in Texas, October 23, 1997
- Cold in Ohio, October 23, 1997
More
Every storm in Texas in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Texas, 1997Warnings in Texas, October 1997
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5623148.