Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1979

F1 tornado, Comanche County, Texas, April 10, 1979

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Comanche County on April 10, 1979, touching down at 11:50 PM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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
April 10, 1979
Touchdown
11:50 PM CST (05:50 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Comanche County
Touchdown point
31.870, -98.520
Record number
135

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

5.8 hours before the tornado, 56 km from the path. April 11, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1979-04-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1088 joules per kilogram, CIN -72, lifted condensation level 694 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 1979-04-11The 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 247 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1088 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-72 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1229 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
694 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
247 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
400 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
7.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.2 hours after it, 56 km from the path. April 11, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z on 1979-04-11Temperature 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 -7316, lifted condensation level 2679 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 1979-04-11The 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 -237 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
-7316 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2679 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-237 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
143 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of April 10, 1979

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 101:08 PM CSTF0Crosby, TX2.050under $50
April 101:38 PM CSTF0Hale, TX0.110under $50
April 103:05 PM CSTF2Foard, TX22.11501$50,000 to $500,000
April 103:20 PM CSTF4Wilbarger, TX to OK39.78801168$5 million to $50 million
April 103:20 PM CSTF0Foard, TX2.5100$500 to $5,000
April 103:55 PM CSTF2Wilbarger, TX to OK74.11,05613$500,000 to $5 million
April 104:05 PM CSTF2Tillman, OK9.21201$50,000 to $500,000
April 104:35 PM CSTF1Comanche, OK7.1100$500 to $5,000
April 104:49 PM CSTF2Baylor, TX10.4300$5,000 to $50,000
April 105:05 PM CSTF3Comanche, OK4.51703100$5 million to $50 million
April 105:08 PM CSTF1Wichita, TX0.110
April 105:50 PM CSTF4Wichita Falls tornado, TX46.91,320421740$50 million to $500 million
April 106:00 PM CSTF1Wichita, TX2.050$5,000 to $50,000
April 106:40 PM CSTF2Cleveland, OK2.010$500 to $5,000
April 106:45 PM CSTF2Pottawatomie, OK4.6100$50,000 to $500,000
April 106:50 PM CSTF2Cleveland, OK1.540$5,000 to $50,000
April 107:30 PM CSTF1Ellis, KS0.5672$50,000 to $500,000
April 107:55 PM CSTF3Carter, OK12.8170$50,000 to $500,000
April 108:05 PM CSTF0Pottawatomie, OK0.213
April 108:05 PM CSTF0Pottawatomie, OK0.213
April 109:17 PM CSTF2Runnels, TX9.6100
April 109:30 PM CSTF3Runnels, TX25.08801$500 to $5,000
April 1011:50 PM CSTF2Hamilton, TX24.02003$5,000 to $50,000
April 1011:56 PM CSTF1Palo Pinto, 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.