Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1973

F2 tornado, Smith County, Texas, January 20, 1973

This F2 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Smith County on January 20, 1973, touching down at 3:15 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, 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.

  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
January 20, 1973
Touchdown
3:15 PM CST (21:15 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Smith County
Touchdown point
32.150, -95.280
Record number
14

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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 148 km from the path. January 20, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1973-01-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 18 joules per kilogram, CIN -75, lifted condensation level 559 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1973-01-20The 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 222 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
18 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-75 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
559 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
222 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
240 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
2.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 148 km from the path. January 21, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1973-01-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 68 joules per kilogram, CIN -78, lifted condensation level 713 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1973-01-21The 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 234 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
68 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-78 J/kg
Surface CAPE
39 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
713 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
234 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
421 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 20, 1973

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 202:10 PM CSTF1Shelby, TX14.5200$50,000 to $500,000
January 202:15 PM CSTF1Shelby, TX17.3200$50,000 to $500,000
January 202:30 PM CSTF1Smith, TX0.3200$500 to $5,000
January 205:45 PM CSTF2Red River Parish, LA7.7100$5,000 to $50,000
January 206:00 PM CSTF1McCulloch, TX0.520$500 to $5,000
January 206:15 PM CSTF1San Saba, TX4.3440$500 to $5,000
January 207:00 PM CSTF1Gillespie, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
January 207:30 PM CSTF1Guadalupe, TX0.110
January 207:30 PM CSTF1Camp, TX0.310$50 to $500
January 209:00 PM CSTF1Milam, TX0.310$5,000 to $50,000
January 209:00 PM CSTF2Travis, TX0.140$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.