Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1973

F1 tornado, Rusk County, Texas, March 10, 1973

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Rusk County on March 10, 1973, touching down at 10:00 AM CST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F1
Date
March 10, 1973
Touchdown
10:00 AM CST (16:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Rusk County
Touchdown point
32.130, -94.950
Record number
62

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

4.0 hours before the tornado, 119 km from the path. March 10, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA 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 719 joules per kilogram, CIN -117, lifted condensation level 563 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 1973-03-10The 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 338 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
719 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-117 J/kg
Surface CAPE
325 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
563 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
338 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
515 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
10.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

8.0 hours after it, 119 km from the path. March 11, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA 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 -7474, lifted condensation level 1437 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, Shreveport, LA 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 -115 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 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
-7474 J/kg
Surface CAPE
42 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1437 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-115 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 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 106:02 AM CSTF4Limestone, TX23.3150677
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 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.