Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1976

F0 tornado, Fort Bend County, Texas, May 26, 1976

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Fort Bend County on May 26, 1976, touching down at 11:35 PM CDT and reaching 10 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, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
May 26, 1976
Touchdown
11:35 PM CDT (04:35 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Fort Bend County
Touchdown point
29.620, -95.570
Record number
446

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

4.6 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. May 27, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1976-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1729 joules per kilogram, CIN -71, lifted condensation level 953 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 1976-05-27The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
1729 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-71 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2226 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
953 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

7.4 hours after it, 155 km from the path. May 27, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1976-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 33 joules per kilogram, CIN -296, lifted condensation level 1575 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 1976-05-27The 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 -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
33 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-296 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1575 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 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 26, 1976

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 265:15 AM CDTF2San Patricio, TX0.5401$5,000 to $50,000
May 262:23 PM CDTF0Murray, OK0.110under $50
May 262:25 PM CDTF1Denton, TX0.110
May 262:32 PM CDTF1Denton, TX0.110
May 263:30 PM CDTF1Johnson, TX0.150$500 to $5,000
May 263:45 PM CDTF1Johnson, TX0.550$50 to $500
May 264:00 PM CDTF3Jones, TX1.0300$50,000 to $500,000
May 264:12 PM CDTF3Johnson, TX3.8100$5,000 to $50,000
May 264:25 PM CDTF1Johnson, TX0.250$50 to $500
May 264:35 PM CDTF0Tarrant, TX0.113
May 264:40 PM CDTF2Johnson, TX0.2100$50 to $500
May 265:17 PM CDTF4Johnson, TX18.8300$500,000 to $5 million
May 265:25 PM CDTF3Dallas, TX4.51501$500,000 to $5 million
May 265:50 PM CDTF1Burnet, TX20.4200$50,000 to $500,000
May 266:19 PM CDTF2Bell, TX0.110
May 266:25 PM CDTF1Burnet, TX3.6100$50,000 to $500,000
May 266:29 PM CDTF1Miller, AR1.030
May 267:08 PM CDTF3Bell, TX2.010027$500,000 to $5 million
May 268:43 PM CDTF2Bell, TX0.110
May 268:50 PM CDTF2Bell, 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.