Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1965

F1 tornado, Nolan County, Texas, May 15, 1965

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Nolan County on May 15, 1965, touching down at 5:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 100 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
May 15, 1965
Touchdown
5:00 PM GMT-5 (22:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Nolan County
Touchdown point
32.250, -100.430
Lift-off point
32.250, -100.420
Record number
333

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

10.0 hours before the tornado, 80 km from the path. May 15, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Abilene Municipa, TX at 12:00Z on 1965-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 781 joules per kilogram, CIN -195, lifted condensation level 1224 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 1965-05-15The 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 172 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
781 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-195 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2101 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1224 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
142 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.0 hours after it, 80 km from the path. May 16, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Abilene Municipa, TX at 00:00Z on 1965-05-16Temperature 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 -7221, lifted condensation level 1421 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, Abilene Municipa, TX at 00:00Z on 1965-05-16The 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 -21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7221 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1421 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of May 15, 1965

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1512:00 PM GMT-5F0Polk, NE0.110
May 1512:02 PM GMT-5F0Butler, NE0.310
May 1512:15 PM GMT-5F0Plymouth, IA0.110
May 1512:45 PM GMT-5F2Calhoun, IA0.550$50 to $500
May 152:30 PM GMT-5F2Sac, IA0.550$50 to $500
May 153:40 PM GMT-5F1Nolan, TX1.0100
May 154:00 PM GMT-5F0Craig, OK0.110$50 to $500
May 154:00 PM GMT-5F2Ottawa, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 154:30 PM GMT-5F1Chickasaw, IA0.110$500 to $5,000
May 155:00 PM GMT-5F2Humboldt, IA0.5100$50 to $500
May 155:00 PM GMT-5F3Jones, TX9.31002$50,000 to $500,000
May 156:30 PM GMT-5F2San Patricio, TX0.117$50 to $500
May 157:35 PM GMT-5F2Iowa, WI1.0331$5,000 to $50,000
May 1510:00 PM GMT-5F1Fond du Lac, WI0.8150$5,000 to $50,000
May 1510:00 PM GMT-5F2Coleman, TX0.110
May 1510:00 PM GMT-5F2Coleman, TX0.110
May 1512:40 AM GMT-5F3Midland, TX1.010$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.