Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1972

F1 tornado, Clay County, Texas, August 8, 1972

Name: F1 tornado, Clay County, Texas, August 8, 1972
Start: 1972-08-09T02:15:00.000Z
Location: Clay County, Texas

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Clay County on August 8, 1972, touching down at 9:15 PM CDT and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: August 8, 1972
Touchdown: 9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
Path length: 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width: 67 yards (61 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $5,000 to $50,000
County: Clay County
Touchdown point: 34.080, -98.100
Record number: 598

The surface observations

Wichita Falls/Shep (SPS), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Pressure (mb)
01:00 UTC	89	57	210° 17 kt
02:00 UTC	86	58	220° 13 kt
03:00 UTC	84	59	270° 13 kt	1012.2
04:00 UTC	77	63	20° 17 kt

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 1972 tornado in Texas Every tornado in Texas since 1950 Warnings in force in Texas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 8, 1972

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
August 8	3:15 PM CDT	F0	Potter, TX	2.0	50
August 8	5:00 PM EDT	F0	Clarendon, SC	3.3	60	$5,000 to $50,000
August 8	3:00 PM MST	F0	Mohave, AZ	2.3	300	under $50
August 8	6:50 PM CDT	F1	Hood, TX	0.8	10	$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.