Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1961

F3 tornado, Pecos County, Texas, May 4, 1961

This F3 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Pecos County on May 4, 1961, touching down at 7:30 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
May 4, 1961
Touchdown
7:30 PM GMT-5 (00:30 UTC)
Path length
1.1 miles (1.8 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Pecos County
Touchdown point
30.530, -102.370
Record number
245

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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

0.5 hours before the tornado, 159 km from the path. May 5, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1961-05-05Temperature 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 -6395, lifted condensation level 3735 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1961-05-05The 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 25 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6395 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3735 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 159 km from the path. May 5, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1961-05-05Temperature 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 -8289, lifted condensation level 2753 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1961-05-05The 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 -124 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
-8289 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1557 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2753 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-43 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1961 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 4, 1961

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 43:00 PM GMT-5F0Hemphill, TX8.410
May 42:00 PM GMT-7F2Emery, UT9.467$500 to $5,000
May 44:00 PM GMT-5F2Roger Mills, OK23.5200$5,000 to $50,000
May 44:00 PM GMT-5F2Red River, TX0.81,000
May 45:00 PM GMT-5F1Dewey, OK1.0400
May 45:15 PM GMT-5F2Dewey, OK1.0400$500 to $5,000
May 46:40 PM GMT-5F3Blaine, OK9.5101$5,000 to $50,000
May 47:15 PM GMT-5F2Canadian, OK9.010$5,000 to $50,000
May 47:30 PM GMT-5F1Kingfisher, OK9.010$5,000 to $50,000
May 47:45 PM GMT-5F1Canadian, OK12.610$500 to $5,000
May 49:00 PM GMT-5F2Ellis, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 49:25 PM GMT-5F0Canadian, OK0.110
May 411:00 PM GMT-5F0Cottle, TX0.110

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.