Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1981

F1 tornado, Brazoria County, Texas, August 31, 1981

This F1 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Brazoria County on August 31, 1981, touching down at 12:45 PM CDT and reaching 43 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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
August 31, 1981
Touchdown
12:45 PM CDT (17:45 UTC)
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
43 yards (39 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Brazoria County
Touchdown point
29.130, -95.250
Record number
715

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

5.8 hours before the tornado, 163 km from the path. August 31, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1981-08-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1636 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 544 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 1981-08-31The 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 98 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
1636 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2921 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
544 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
5.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.2 hours after it, 163 km from the path. September 1, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1981-09-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1957 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 941 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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 1981-09-01The 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 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
1957 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2272 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
941 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 31, 1981

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 319:15 AM CDTF1Brazoria, TX0.330$50,000 to $500,000
August 319:30 AM CDTF0Austin, TX0.137$5,000 to $50,000
August 317:05 PM CDTF1Galveston, TX12.9832$5 million to $50 million

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.