Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1971

F3 tornado, Carson County, Texas, October 17, 1971

This F3 tornado ran 2.3 miles across Carson County on October 17, 1971, touching down at 10:30 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2.

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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
October 17, 1971
Touchdown
10:30 PM CDT (03:30 UTC)
Path length
2.3 miles (3.7 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
County
Carson County
Touchdown point
35.370, -101.100
Lift-off point
35.370, -101.050
Record number
802

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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 59 km from the path. October 18, 1971.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1971-10-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 567 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 1141 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1971-10-18The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 0 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
567 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1141 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 59 km from the path. October 18, 1971.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1971-10-18Temperature 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 -7325, lifted condensation level 1892 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1971-10-18The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 0 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7325 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1892 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Amarillo - Rick Husband Intl (AMA), 60 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
02:00 UTC6659170° 20 kt291006.1TS SHRA
03:00 UTC6356170° 23 kt1002.4-TSRA
04:00 UTC6356200° 17 ktTS SHRA
05:00 UTC5649290° 9 ktTS SHRA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1971 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 17, 1971

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 174:15 PM EDTF1Hillsborough, FL0.310$5,000 to $50,000
October 176:00 PM CDTF1Carson, TX0.350$5,000 to $50,000
October 176:30 PM MDTF3Kiowa, CO5.6500$50,000 to $500,000
October 177:30 PM CDTF1Hansford, TX0.117$500 to $5,000
October 177:45 PM CDTF2Lamb, TX31.1100$500,000 to $5 million
October 178:00 PM CDTF1Roberts, TX0.520$5,000 to $50,000
October 178:00 PM CDTF1Roberts, TX0.520
October 178:00 PM CDTF2Lamb, TX28.64004$500,000 to $5 million
October 178:30 PM CDTF2Lamb, TX31.0100$500,000 to $5 million
October 178:45 PM CDTF3Logan, KS0.110
October 179:40 PM CDTF1Cochran, TX4.950$500 to $5,000
October 1710:00 PM CDTF1Lamb, TX8.2100
October 179:07 PM MDTF2Yuma, CO1.02009$500,000 to $5 million
October 1710:07 PM CDTF3Rawlins, KS3.8440$5,000 to $50,000
October 1710:30 PM CDTF1Hale, TX0.350
October 1710:30 PM CDTF1Hale, TX0.350
October 179:45 PM MDTF0Deuel, NE0.110$5,000 to $50,000
October 1710:20 PM MDTF1Keith, NE11.5300$50,000 to $500,000
October 1711:25 PM CDTF2Finney, KS5.61277$5,000 to $50,000
October 1712:15 AM CDTF2Cheyenne, KS0.5100$5,000 to $50,000

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.