Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1963

F1 tornado, Scurry County, Texas, April 26, 1963

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Scurry County on April 26, 1963, touching down at 3:00 PM GMT-6 and reaching 33 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
April 26, 1963
Touchdown
3:00 PM GMT-6 (21:00 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Scurry County
Touchdown point
32.730, -100.920
Lift-off point
32.770, -100.900
Record number
114

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.

Abilene Municipa, TX (KABI), 12:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 128 km from the path. April 26, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Abilene Municipa, TX at 12:00Z on 1963-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1789 joules per kilogram, CIN -104, lifted condensation level 852 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, Abilene Municipa, TX at 12:00Z on 1963-04-26The 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 135 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
1789 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-104 J/kg
Surface CAPE
201 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
852 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
135 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Abilene Municipa, TX (KABI), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 128 km from the path. April 27, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Abilene Municipa, TX at 00:00Z on 1963-04-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1220 joules per kilogram, CIN -46, lifted condensation level 1911 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, Abilene Municipa, TX at 00:00Z on 1963-04-27The 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 228 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
1220 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-46 J/kg
Surface CAPE
974 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1911 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
228 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
5.9
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of April 26, 1963

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 263:00 PM GMT-6F2Scurry, TX19.067
April 263:00 PM GMT-6F1Fisher, TX13.333

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.