Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1976

F3 tornado, Comanche County, Texas, April 19, 1976

This F3 tornado ran 2.2 miles across Comanche County on April 19, 1976, touching down at 6:15 PM CST and reaching 250 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
April 19, 1976
Touchdown
6:15 PM CST (00:15 UTC)
Path length
2.2 miles (3.5 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Comanche County
Touchdown point
32.070, -98.880
Record number
296

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.

Stephenville/Cla, TX (KSEP), 00:00Z

0.3 hours before the tornado, 75 km from the path. April 20, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1494 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 541 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, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-04-20The 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 213 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
1494 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1477 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
541 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
279 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.1
Supercell composite
8.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Stephenville/Cla, TX (KSEP), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 75 km from the path. April 20, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z on 1976-04-20Temperature 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 -12487, lifted condensation level 2540 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, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z on 1976-04-20The 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 -57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 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
-12487 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2540 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-25 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 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 19, 1976

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 1912:45 PM CSTF2Parker, TX0.310$5,000 to $50,000
April 191:20 PM CSTF1Tarrant, TX1.250$5,000 to $50,000
April 192:25 PM CSTF2Jefferson, OK3.8440$5,000 to $50,000
April 192:35 PM CSTF1Cotton, OK0.1200
April 192:55 PM CSTF0Moore, TX0.110
April 195:20 PM CSTF1Cooke, TX0.110under $50
April 195:30 PM CSTF3Montague, TX10.43732$50,000 to $500,000
April 195:30 PM CSTF5Brownwood tornado, TX10.544011$500,000 to $5 million
April 196:15 PM CSTF2Love, OK5.160$5,000 to $50,000
April 196:24 PM CSTF2Love, OK6.1100$50,000 to $500,000
April 197:30 PM CSTF2Erath, TX11.1300$5,000 to $50,000
April 198:28 PM CSTF2Hood, TX0.210
April 198:55 PM CSTF2Hood, TX0.210
April 1910:55 PM CSTF2Tarrant, TX0.110
April 1911:00 PM CSTF1Wise, TX0.110

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.