Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1979

F1 tornado, Red River County, Texas, May 3, 1979

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Red River County on May 3, 1979, touching down at 2:08 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 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 3, 1979
Touchdown
2:08 PM CDT (19:08 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Red River County
Touchdown point
33.380, -94.850
Record number
221

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.

Longview/Gregg, TX (KGGG), 12:00Z

7.1 hours before the tornado, 117 km from the path. May 3, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Longview/Gregg, TX at 12:00Z on 1979-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 935 joules per kilogram, CIN -215, lifted condensation level 699 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, Longview/Gregg, TX at 12:00Z on 1979-05-03The 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 120 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
935 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-215 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1625 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
699 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
269 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Longview/Gregg, TX (KGGG), 00:00Z

4.9 hours after it, 117 km from the path. May 4, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Longview/Gregg, TX at 00:00Z on 1979-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2328 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 690 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, Longview/Gregg, TX at 00:00Z on 1979-05-04The 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 224 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
2328 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3545 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
690 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
224 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
306 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.6
Supercell composite
21.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1979 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 3, 1979

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 310:28 AM CDTF0Tarrant, TX0.110
May 311:00 AM CDTF1Johnson, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
May 311:01 AM CDTF1Parker, TX0.110
May 311:30 AM CDTF1Tarrant, TX0.150
May 311:30 AM CDTF1Dallas, TX1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 311:48 AM CDTF1Dallas, TX1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 312:38 PM CDTF1Hunt, TX0.110
May 31:58 PM CDTF1Lamar, TX0.110
May 32:05 PM CDTF2Dallas, TX7.62005$5 million to $50 million
May 32:25 PM CDTF0Dallas, TX0.550$50 to $500
May 35:10 PM CDTF1Lauderdale, TN0.550$500 to $5,000
May 35:22 PM CDTF2Clark, AR1.01002$500,000 to $5 million
May 35:26 PM CDTF1Dyer, TN0.530$500 to $5,000
May 35:30 PM CDTF0Clark, AR0.110
May 35:50 PM CDTF2Crockett, TN9.4735$5,000 to $50,000
May 36:00 PM CDTF3Wood, TX7.2400$500,000 to $5 million
May 36:20 PM CDTF2Camp, TX10.8200$50,000 to $500,000
May 36:44 PM CDTF0Hot Spring, AR0.227$500 to $5,000
May 36:55 PM CDTF1Cass, TX0.110
May 37:30 PM CDTF1Smith, TX0.110
May 37:30 PM CDTF1Bowie, TX0.110
May 37:30 PM CDTF1Upshur, TX0.110
May 38:17 PM CDTF0Cleveland, AR0.327
May 38:20 PM CDTF1Jefferson, AR0.377$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.