Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1980

F2 tornado, Travis County, Texas, August 10, 1980

This F2 tornado ran 5.4 miles across Travis County on August 10, 1980, touching down at 2:40 PM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4, and did $50 million to $500 million 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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
August 10, 1980
Touchdown
2:40 PM CDT (19:40 UTC)
Path length
5.4 miles (8.7 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
4
Property damage
$50 million to $500 million
County
Travis County
Touchdown point
30.250, -97.650
Lift-off point
30.300, -97.720
Record number
746

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), 12:00Z

7.7 hours before the tornado, 176 km from the path. August 10, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1980-08-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 298 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 561 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 1980-08-10The 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 248 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 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
298 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
685 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
561 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
248 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
403 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.3 hours after it, 176 km from the path. August 11, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1980-08-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 820 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 666 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 1980-08-11The 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 197 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
820 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2876 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
666 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
327 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Austin - City/Camp Mabry (ATT), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:00 UTC787460° 10 kt1011.2-RA
19:00 UTC787460° 9 kt1011.2-RA
20:00 UTC787490° 12 kt1011.2RA DZ
21:00 UTC797590° 9 kt1010.2-RA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1980 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 10, 1980

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 105:00 AM CDTF2Nueces, TX2.540$500,000 to $5 million
August 109:30 AM CDTF1Victoria, TX0.830$5,000 to $50,000
August 109:57 AM CDTF2Bexar, TX12.21002$50,000 to $500,000
August 1010:00 AM CDTF2Jim Wells, TX2.0401$50,000 to $500,000
August 1010:50 AM CDTF1Bexar, TX0.330$5,000 to $50,000
August 101:14 PM CDTF1Caldwell, TX14.880$50,000 to $500,000
August 102:00 PM CDTF2Bastrop, TX18.877
August 102:15 PM CDTF0Bastrop, TX11.750
August 102:30 PM CDTF0Bastrop, TX11.127$500 to $5,000
August 103:25 PM CDTF0Travis, TX30.750$50,000 to $500,000
August 105:02 PM CDTF2Hays, TX47.720020$5 million to $50 million
August 105:30 PM CDTF0Frio, TX2.030$5,000 to $50,000
August 105:45 PM CDTF0Frio, TX1.530$500 to $5,000
August 106:30 PM CDTF1Nueces, TX1.030$5,000 to $50,000
August 106:30 PM MDTF2Sheridan, NE11.330$5,000 to $50,000
August 107:30 PM CDTF1San Patricio, TX2.030$50,000 to $500,000
August 107:35 PM CDTF0Bexar, TX0.833
August 107:50 PM CDTF1Hidalgo, TX1.050$50,000 to $500,000
August 108:30 PM CDTF1Medina, TX1.040$5,000 to $50,000
August 1010:35 PM CDTF1Hall, NE0.120$50,000 to $500,000

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.