Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1958

F0 tornado, Harrison County, Texas, November 17, 1958

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Harrison County on November 17, 1958, touching down at 2:15 PM GMT-6 and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
November 17, 1958
Touchdown
2:15 PM GMT-6 (20:15 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
67 yards (61 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Harrison County
Touchdown point
32.500, -94.430
Record number
560

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. November 17, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1958-11-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 866 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 650 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1958-11-17The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 270 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
866 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
824 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
650 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
270 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
356 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.5
Supercell composite
6.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 64 km from the path. November 18, 1958.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1958-11-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -13960, lifted condensation level 1159 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1958-11-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -132 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13960 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1159 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-132 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1958 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 17, 1958

33 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 175:00 AM GMT-6F2Crawford, KS0.110
November 175:30 AM GMT-6F2Nowata, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
November 176:00 AM GMT-6F2Haskell, TX1.0337$50,000 to $500,000
November 176:15 AM GMT-6F2Jackson, OK14.8100
November 176:31 AM GMT-6F1Throckmorton, TX0.3174under $50
November 176:45 AM GMT-6F2Young, TX7.61331$50,000 to $500,000
November 177:00 AM GMT-6F2Caddo, OK5.410
November 177:10 AM GMT-6F1Palo Pinto, TX7.867$5,000 to $50,000
November 177:15 AM GMT-6F2Wichita, TX4.9200$5,000 to $50,000
November 177:35 AM GMT-6F3Cotton, OK65.8504
November 178:08 AM GMT-6F3Garfield, OK39.210under $50
November 178:30 AM GMT-6F2Murray, OK3.6300$5,000 to $50,000
November 178:30 AM GMT-6F2Pontotoc, OK8.8500under $50
November 178:47 AM GMT-6F1Carter, OK0.1204under $50
November 179:15 AM GMT-6F1Grayson, TX4.333$500 to $5,000
November 179:23 AM GMT-6F3Seminole, OK18.330015$50,000 to $500,000
November 179:30 AM GMT-6F1Cowley, KS10.3220$5,000 to $50,000
November 179:30 AM GMT-6F2Jackson, OK1.010
November 179:45 AM GMT-6F0Elk, KS0.110
November 179:45 AM GMT-6F3Elk, KS8.5880$5,000 to $50,000
November 1710:20 AM GMT-6F2Leavenworth, KS0.110$500 to $5,000
November 1710:50 AM GMT-6F0Coffey, KS0.110
November 1710:55 AM GMT-6F2Osage, KS0.110
November 1711:00 AM GMT-6F2Franklin, KS0.110$50 to $500
November 1711:10 AM GMT-6F1Douglas, KS0.110
November 1711:15 AM GMT-6F0Leavenworth, KS0.110
November 1711:20 AM GMT-6F1Craig, OK3.6127$5,000 to $50,000
November 1711:30 AM GMT-6F3Barton, MO30.24001$50,000 to $500,000
November 171:30 PM GMT-6F1Putnam, MO2.750$5,000 to $50,000
November 171:30 PM GMT-6F2Webster, MO12.8127$5,000 to $50,000
November 171:45 PM GMT-6F2Grundy, MO14.950$50,000 to $500,000
November 172:00 PM GMT-6F2Harrison, MO4.1100$50,000 to $500,000
November 172:30 PM GMT-6F2Hot Spring, AR8.610$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.