Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1976

F1 tornado, Blanco and Gillespie counties, Texas, May 23, 1976

This F1 tornado ran 13.7 miles across Blanco and Gillespie counties on May 23, 1976, touching down at 7:45 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
May 23, 1976
Touchdown
7:45 PM CDT (00:45 UTC)
Path length
13.7 miles (22.0 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Blanco and Gillespie counties
Touchdown point
30.200, -98.600
Lift-off point
30.080, -98.430
Record number
413

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.

Victoria Regiona, TX (KVCT), 00:00Z

0.8 hours before the tornado, 212 km from the path. May 24, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 154 joules per kilogram, CIN -473, lifted condensation level 1589 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, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-05-24The 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 22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
154 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-473 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1925 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1589 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Victoria Regiona, TX (KVCT), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 212 km from the path. May 24, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1976-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 73 joules per kilogram, CIN -390, lifted condensation level 988 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, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1976-05-24The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
73 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-390 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1178 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
988 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 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 May 23, 1976

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 238:20 AM EDTF1Hillsborough, FL9.6332$500,000 to $5 million
May 2311:00 AM EDTF0Marion, FL3.333$50 to $500
May 2312:30 PM EDTF0Volusia, FL0.510$50 to $500
May 236:15 PM CDTF1Mason, TX5.4100$5,000 to $50,000
May 236:20 PM CDTF1Llano, TX2.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 237:15 PM CDTF1Gillespie, TX1.0100$500 to $5,000
May 239:40 PM CDTF2Rockwall, TX0.110$500 to $5,000

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.