Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1976

F1 tornado, Deaf Smith County, Texas, April 15, 1976

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Deaf Smith County on April 15, 1976, touching down at 12:25 PM CST and reaching 30 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.

  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
April 15, 1976
Touchdown
12:25 PM CST (18:25 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Deaf Smith County
Touchdown point
34.820, -102.400
Record number
252

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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

6.4 hours before the tornado, 78 km from the path. April 15, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z 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 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -7602, lifted condensation level 1841 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z 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 11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-7602 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1841 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

5.6 hours after it, 78 km from the path. April 16, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-04-16Temperature 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 -11032, lifted condensation level 1481 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-04-16The 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 -257 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 81 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-11032 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1481 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
81 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-257 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-204 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Amarillo - Rick Husband Intl (AMA), 77 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:00 UTC5757150° 19 kt271001.4
18:00 UTC5958150° 24 kt998.6-DZ FG
18:14 UTC160° 22 kt291001.7DZ FZFG
19:00 UTC6058160° 20 kt25997.6
19:35 UTC290° 22 kt27+TSRA
20:00 UTC4745300° 16 kt22999.7

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

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 15, 1976

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 1511:00 AM CSTF1Columbia, WI25.2150$50,000 to $500,000
April 1512:30 PM CSTF0Kearny, KS0.120$500 to $5,000
April 152:05 PM CSTF0Lubbock, TX0.110$50 to $500
April 152:25 PM CSTF1Scott, KS33.44401$50,000 to $500,000
April 152:30 PM CSTF0Hansford, TX0.110
April 152:30 PM CSTF0Hansford, TX0.110
April 152:47 PM CSTF0Hansford, TX0.110
April 154:30 PM ESTF1Midland, MI4.533$5,000 to $50,000
April 154:30 PM CSTF1Stonewall, TX0.530$500 to $5,000
April 155:00 PM CSTF3Runnels, TX9.910$5,000 to $50,000
April 155:12 PM CSTF2Runnels, TX0.110
April 155:27 PM CSTF0Jones, TX0.110
April 155:27 PM CSTF0Jones, TX0.110
April 156:00 PM CSTF1Becker, MN0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 156:15 PM CSTF1York, NE0.110$50,000 to $500,000
April 156:38 PM CSTF2Baylor, TX0.110
April 157:00 PM CSTF2Clay, NE11.1100$50,000 to $500,000
April 157:00 PM CSTF2Young, TX2.010$50,000 to $500,000
April 157:00 PM CSTF2Young, TX2.010$50,000 to $500,000
April 158:15 PM CSTF1Wise, TX8.850$5,000 to $50,000
April 158:15 PM CSTF1Wise, TX8.950$5,000 to $50,000
April 158:30 PM CSTF1Palo Pinto, TX0.233$500 to $5,000
April 159:10 PM CSTF2McLennan, TX5.910$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.