Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1976

F0 tornado, Garza County, Texas, April 14, 1976

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Garza County on April 14, 1976, touching down at 5:55 PM CST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
April 14, 1976
Touchdown
5:55 PM CST (23:55 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Garza County
Touchdown point
33.080, -101.380
Record number
246

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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

11.9 hours before the tornado, 147 km from the path. April 14, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1976-04-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 865 joules per kilogram, CIN -295, lifted condensation level 1475 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1976-04-14The 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 139 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
865 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-295 J/kg
Surface CAPE
109 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1475 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

0.1 hours after it, 147 km from the path. April 15, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-04-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 667 joules per kilogram, CIN -151, lifted condensation level 2828 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-04-15The 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 159 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
667 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-151 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1482 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2828 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
263 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1976 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 14, 1976

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 144:00 PM CSTF1Saint Louis, MN20.9200$5,000 to $50,000
April 144:05 PM CSTF2Jewell, KS to NE38.83301$50,000 to $500,000
April 146:45 PM CSTF1Jefferson, NE6.523$50,000 to $500,000
April 147:30 PM CSTF1Seward, KS73.250$50,000 to $500,000
April 148:15 PM CSTF2Dallas, IA4.967$50 to $500
April 148:20 PM CSTF1Dickens, TX2.030$50 to $500

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.