Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1959

F2 tornado, McMullen and Live Oak counties, Texas, May 10, 1959

This F2 tornado ran 13.8 miles across McMullen and Live Oak counties on May 10, 1959, touching down at 5:30 PM GMT-5 and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

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 mph

    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 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
May 10, 1959
Touchdown
5:30 PM GMT-5 (22:30 UTC)
Path length
13.8 miles (22.2 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
Counties
McMullen and Live Oak counties
Touchdown point
28.480, -98.430
Lift-off point
28.330, -98.280
Record number
211

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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KNGP), 12:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 125 km from the path. May 10, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1959-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1532 joules per kilogram, CIN -271, lifted condensation level 733 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1959-05-10The 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 119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1532 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-271 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2473 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
733 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KNGP), 00:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 125 km from the path. May 11, 1959.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1959-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2242 joules per kilogram, CIN -69, lifted condensation level 888 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1959-05-11The 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 139 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2242 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-69 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1684 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
888 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.3
Supercell composite
6.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of May 10, 1959

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 101:10 AM GMT-5F1Monroe, IL3.650$5,000 to $50,000
May 102:00 PM GMT-5F4Guthrie, IA41.14001$500,000 to $5 million
May 103:20 PM GMT-5F1Harvey, KS2.510$500 to $5,000
May 103:30 PM GMT-5F2Montgomery, IA1.0200$500 to $5,000
May 104:00 PM GMT-5F1Taylor, TX4.1100$500 to $5,000
May 104:00 PM GMT-5F2Seminole, OK2.0300$500 to $5,000
May 104:15 PM GMT-5F1Taylor, TX4.7150$5,000 to $50,000
May 104:20 PM GMT-5F3Travis, TX11.0667$50,000 to $500,000
May 104:50 PM GMT-5F0Young, TX0.110
May 105:00 PM GMT-5F2Nodaway, MO0.217$5,000 to $50,000
May 105:00 PM GMT-5F2Bexar, TX1.033$500 to $5,000
May 105:45 PM GMT-5F2Franklin, IA6.5300$5,000 to $50,000
May 106:00 PM GMT-5F1Polk, IA1.050$500 to $5,000
May 106:00 PM GMT-5F1Callahan, TX0.367$500 to $5,000
May 106:45 PM GMT-5F2Burleson, TX22.210$500 to $5,000
May 106:53 PM GMT-5F2Polk, IA0.350$500 to $5,000
May 107:10 PM GMT-5F2Sequoyah, OK1.5501$500 to $5,000
May 107:20 PM GMT-5F2Live Oak, TX4.9250$5,000 to $50,000
May 107:25 PM GMT-5F2Live Oak, TX4.3167$5,000 to $50,000
May 107:30 PM GMT-5F0Live Oak, TX0.110
May 108:00 PM GMT-5F3Robertson, TX15.83337$500 to $5,000
May 108:20 PM GMT-5F1Columbia, WI2.233$500 to $5,000
May 108:30 PM GMT-5F1Navarro, TX0.110under $50
May 109:50 PM GMT-5F2Brown, WI4.3333$500,000 to $5 million

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.