Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1978

F0 tornado, Stephens County, Texas, May 16, 1978

This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Stephens County on May 16, 1978, touching down at 6:00 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 16, 1978
Touchdown
6:00 PM CDT (23:00 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stephens County
Touchdown point
32.870, -98.900
Lift-off point
32.870, -98.850
Record number
269

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), 12:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. May 16, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z on 1978-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1595 joules per kilogram, CIN -257, lifted condensation level 1799 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 12:00Z on 1978-05-16The 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 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1595 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-257 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1360 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1799 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.0 hours after it, 102 km from the path. May 17, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1978-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 708 joules per kilogram, CIN -128, lifted condensation level 2070 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 1978-05-17The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 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
708 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-128 J/kg
Surface CAPE
750 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2070 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mineral Wells Municipal (MWL), 77 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC847180° 12 kt221001.7
22:00 UTC8573110° 13 kt221001
23:00 UTC807090° 12 kt211000
00:00 UTC7970100° 10 kt201001
00:15 UTC90° 12 kt1002.4
00:28 UTC90° 12 kt1002.4

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1978 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 16, 1978

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 167:15 PM MDTF0Converse, WY2.0180
May 169:00 PM MDTF0Converse, WY2.0180

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.