Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1961

F2 tornado, Red River County, Texas, May 4, 1961

This F2 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Red River County on May 4, 1961, touching down at 4:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 1,000 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 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 4, 1961
Touchdown
4:00 PM GMT-5 (21:00 UTC)
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
1,000 yards (914 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Red River County
Touchdown point
33.470, -95.270
Record number
239

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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 180 km from the path. May 4, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1961-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -282, lifted condensation level 791 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 1961-05-04The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-282 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
791 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 180 km from the path. May 5, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA 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 1824 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 1086 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 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
1824 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2882 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1086 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
253 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.0
Supercell composite
12.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 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 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 47:30 PM GMT-5F3Pecos, TX1.110$50,000 to $500,000
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.