Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1965

F2 tornado, Duval County, Texas, May 18, 1965

This F2 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Duval County on May 18, 1965, touching down at 11:15 PM GMT-5 and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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
May 18, 1965
Touchdown
11:15 PM GMT-5 (04:15 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Duval County
Touchdown point
27.930, -98.250
Record number
363

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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KNGP), 00:00Z

4.3 hours before the tornado, 92 km from the path. May 19, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1965-05-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1287 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 734 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1965-05-19The 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 111 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
1287 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2076 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
734 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
173 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
5.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KNGP), 12:00Z

7.7 hours after it, 92 km from the path. May 19, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1965-05-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 879 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 610 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1965-05-19The 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 82 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.1939Sfc1 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
879 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
562 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
610 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of May 18, 1965

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 186:51 AM GMT-5F2Refugio, TX11.2100$500 to $5,000
May 187:55 AM GMT-5F2Bastrop, TX1.017$500 to $5,000
May 188:13 AM GMT-5F0Travis, TX1.010
May 1810:00 AM GMT-5F0Karnes, TX1.510$50 to $500
May 181:00 PM GMT-5F2Gonzales, TX0.510$500 to $5,000
May 181:00 PM GMT-5F0Gonzales, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
May 182:00 PM GMT-5F1Morgan, IN0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 183:00 PM GMT-5F0Henry, IN0.110under $50
May 187:20 PM GMT-5F0Pottawatomie, OK0.110
May 189:17 PM GMT-5F0Cherokee, KS0.110
May 1810:00 PM GMT-5F2Wilson, TX0.150
May 1810:45 PM GMT-5F0Garfield, OK0.110
May 1810:45 PM GMT-5F0Mayes, OK0.110

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.