Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1973

F4 tornado, Limestone, McLennan and Hill counties, Texas, March 10, 1973

This F4 tornado ran 23.3 miles across Limestone, McLennan and Hill counties on March 10, 1973, touching down at 6:02 AM CST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed 6 people and injured 77.

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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F4
Date
March 10, 1973
Touchdown
6:02 AM CST (12:02 UTC)
Path length
23.3 miles (37.5 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
6
Injuries
77
Counties
Limestone, McLennan and Hill counties
Touchdown point
31.530, -96.830
Lift-off point
31.850, -96.800
Record number
56

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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 135 km from the path. March 10, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 1973-03-10Temperature 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 -45489, lifted condensation level 3590 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 1973-03-10The 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 -334 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45489 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3590 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-334 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 135 km from the path. March 11, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 1973-03-11Temperature 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 -57809, lifted condensation level 3500 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 1973-03-11The 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 65 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 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
-57809 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3500 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.0 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 March 10, 1973

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 101:40 AM CSTF2Tom Green, TX0.37017$50,000 to $500,000
March 103:00 AM CSTF2Taylor, TX0.1101$5,000 to $50,000
March 104:10 AM CSTF3Burnet, TX7.825040
March 105:45 AM CSTF1Travis, TX0.3102$50,000 to $500,000
March 107:00 AM CSTF1Lee, TX0.110$50 to $500
March 107:00 AM CSTF3Grayson, TX6.81003
March 108:00 AM CSTF2Lamar, TX1.51001$5,000 to $50,000
March 108:00 AM CSTF1Rains, TX0.350$50,000 to $500,000
March 108:45 AM CSTF2Hopkins, TX0.5150$5,000 to $50,000
March 1010:00 AM CSTF1Rusk, TX0.120$500 to $5,000
March 103:30 PM CSTF2Drew, AR11.567$5,000 to $50,000
March 1010:00 PM CSTF2Grenada, MS19.9220$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.