Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1967

F2 tornado, Jasper County, Texas, October 30, 1967

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Jasper County on October 30, 1967, touching down at 9:00 AM 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 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
October 30, 1967
Touchdown
9:00 AM GMT-6 (15:00 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
30.670, -93.880
Record number
853

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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

3.0 hours before the tornado, 89 km from the path. October 30, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1967-10-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1211 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 505 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1967-10-30The 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 215 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
1211 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
645 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
505 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
209 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
6.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 89 km from the path. October 31, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1967-10-31Temperature 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 -13480, lifted condensation level 778 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1967-10-31The 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 -56 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-13480 J/kg
Surface CAPE
28 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
778 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1967 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 30, 1967

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 307:15 AM GMT-6F2Plaquemines Parish, LA1.0105$50,000 to $500,000
October 307:54 AM GMT-6F3Harrison, MS2.0400417$5 million to $50 million
October 309:30 AM GMT-6F2Baldwin, AL13.1101$5,000 to $50,000
October 3012:00 PM GMT-6F2Plaquemines Parish, LA0.2101$5,000 to $50,000
October 303:00 PM GMT-6F2Mobile, AL0.110$500 to $5,000
October 304:55 PM GMT-6F3Escambia, FL0.11044$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.