Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1978

F0 tornado, Garza County, Texas, May 28, 1978

This F0 tornado ran 9.1 miles across Garza County on May 28, 1978, touching down at 9:40 PM CDT and reaching 90 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
Date
May 28, 1978
Touchdown
9:40 PM CDT (02:40 UTC)
Path length
9.1 miles (14.6 km)
Path width
90 yards (82 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Garza County
Touchdown point
32.180, -101.150
Lift-off point
32.280, -101.050
Record number
353

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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

2.7 hours before the tornado, 108 km from the path. May 29, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1978-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 850 joules per kilogram, CIN -97, lifted condensation level 2135 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1978-05-29The 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 -55 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 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
850 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-97 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1125 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2135 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-55 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

9.3 hours after it, 108 km from the path. May 29, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1978-05-29Temperature 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 -265, lifted condensation level 1151 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1978-05-29The 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 76 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-265 J/kg
Surface CAPE
72 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1151 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 28, 1978

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2812:50 PM CDTF0Keya Paha, NE4.920
May 281:00 PM CDTF1Miller, MO0.1235$5,000 to $50,000
May 284:15 PM CDTF0Renville, MN0.1300$50 to $500
May 285:20 PM EDTF0Sarasota, FL0.110$500 to $5,000
May 284:40 PM CDTF0Callahan, TX0.110
May 285:45 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
May 285:55 PM CDTF0Loup, NE0.720
May 286:00 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
May 286:03 PM CDTF0Ellis, TX0.110
May 286:30 PM CDTF0Rock, NE1.020
May 287:02 PM CDTF0Mitchell, TX3.360$500 to $5,000
May 288:15 PM CDTF0Scurry, TX1.030
May 289:50 PM CDTF0Thurston, NE0.110

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.