Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1961

F2 tornado, Houston County, Texas, March 26, 1961

This F2 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Houston County on March 26, 1961, touching down at 3:00 PM GMT-6 and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
March 26, 1961
Touchdown
3:00 PM GMT-6 (21:00 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Houston County
Touchdown point
31.320, -95.450
Record number
111

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.

Ellington/Houston, TX (KEFD), 12:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 193 km from the path. March 26, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Ellington/Houston, TX at 12:00Z on 1961-03-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2016 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 500 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, Ellington/Houston, TX at 12:00Z on 1961-03-26The 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 195 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
2016 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1806 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
500 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
195 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
323 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
9.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Ellington/Houston, TX (KEFD), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 193 km from the path. March 27, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Ellington/Houston, TX at 00:00Z on 1961-03-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1907 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 635 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Ellington/Houston, TX at 00:00Z on 1961-03-27The 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 118 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
1907 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3064 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
635 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
8.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of March 26, 1961

26 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 262:30 PM GMT-6F2Canadian, OK29.310$5,000 to $50,000
March 263:00 PM GMT-6F2Hunt, TX3.0880$5,000 to $50,000
March 263:28 PM GMT-6F0Noble, OK0.110
March 263:30 PM GMT-6F0Greenwood, KS0.110
March 263:35 PM GMT-6F2Greenwood, KS2.04401$50,000 to $500,000
March 263:55 PM GMT-6F0Greenwood, KS0.110
March 264:00 PM GMT-6F0Greenwood, KS0.110
March 264:00 PM GMT-6F3Johnson, TX1.050$5,000 to $50,000
March 264:00 PM GMT-6F2Johnson, TX0.3171
March 264:00 PM GMT-6F2Hopkins, TX0.8280$5,000 to $50,000
March 264:20 PM GMT-6F2Cherokee, TX0.550$5,000 to $50,000
March 264:30 PM GMT-6F0Coffey, KS0.7200under $50
March 264:30 PM GMT-6F3Titus, TX0.2102$500 to $5,000
March 265:00 PM GMT-6F2Washington, OK49.61026under $50
March 266:56 PM GMT-6F3McIntosh, OK21.42001$5,000 to $50,000
March 267:10 PM GMT-6F2Hopkins, TX4.7250$5,000 to $50,000
March 267:10 PM GMT-6F2Hopkins, TX3.82501$5,000 to $50,000
March 267:30 PM GMT-6F3Franklin, TX13.0601$5,000 to $50,000
March 267:45 PM GMT-6F0Harvey, KS0.110
March 267:45 PM GMT-6F3Ellis, TX9.12804$500,000 to $5 million
March 268:00 PM GMT-6F2Crawford, KS2.0100$50 to $500
March 268:15 PM GMT-6F3Kay, OK8.0100$5,000 to $50,000
March 268:30 PM GMT-6F3Titus, TX0.1109$50,000 to $500,000
March 268:40 PM GMT-6F2Kaufman, TX0.110$5,000 to $50,000
March 269:30 PM GMT-6F1Wilson, KS2.010
March 2611:30 PM GMT-6F2Arkansas, AR1.53336$50,000 to $500,000

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.