Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1981

F1 tornado, Travis County, Texas, June 13, 1981

This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Travis County on June 13, 1981, touching down at 4:00 PM CDT and reaching 33 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
June 13, 1981
Touchdown
4:00 PM CDT (21:00 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Travis County
Touchdown point
30.280, -97.730
Record number
417

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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 178 km from the path. June 13, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1981-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2158 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 522 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 1981-06-13The 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 123 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
2158 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1969 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
522 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
123 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
153 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 178 km from the path. June 14, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1981-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2054 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 688 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, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1981-06-14The 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 47 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 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
2054 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3658 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
688 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Austin - City/Camp Mabry (ATT), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC807490° 6 kt1010.2
19:40 UTC110° 12 kt1011.2
20:00 UTC7874110° 8 kt1010.2TSRA
20:09 UTC70° 9 kt1010.8
20:15 UTC150° 9 kt1011.2
20:32 UTC160° 10 kt1011.5
21:00 UTC7572230° 9 kt1010.5-TSRA
21:26 UTC120° 6 kt1011.2
22:00 UTC7572210° 3 kt1010.8TSRA
22:17 UTC280° 4 kt1010.5

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

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 June 13, 1981

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 137:30 AM CDTF1Kandiyohi, MN0.550under $50
June 131:55 PM EDTF1Montgomery, OH1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 133:23 PM EDTF3Morrow, OH3.8350456$5 million to $50 million
June 133:30 PM EDTF0Franklin, OH0.5100$500 to $5,000
June 134:30 PM EDTF2Muskingum, OH2.3200$500,000 to $5 million
June 135:36 PM EDTF0Guernsey, OH0.5100$500 to $5,000
June 135:40 PM EDTF2Perry, OH2.02502$50,000 to $500,000
June 135:45 PM EDTF1Muskingum, OH4.9300$50,000 to $500,000
June 136:15 PM EDTF1Hillsborough, FL0.530$5,000 to $50,000
June 135:25 PM CDTF1Madison, NE8.850$50,000 to $500,000
June 136:10 PM CDTF0Boone, NE0.210$50 to $500
June 136:30 PM CDTF2Isanti, MN2.0100$50,000 to $500,000
June 138:30 PM EDTF1Polk, FL0.530$5,000 to $50,000
June 137:30 PM MDTF1Logan, CO1.040
June 139:00 PM ESTF0Montgomery, IN0.110
June 139:25 PM CDTF1Cottonwood, MN0.550$50 to $500
June 139:30 PM CDTF2Sioux, IA0.110$500 to $5,000
June 139:40 PM CDTF1Oneida, WI0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 139:40 PM CDTF1Oneida, WI0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 139:45 PM CDTF1Vilas, WI0.150$5,000 to $50,000
June 1310:00 PM CDTF2Oneida, WI0.150$50,000 to $500,000
June 139:45 PM MDTF1Morgan, CO0.540$5,000 to $50,000
June 1311:00 PM CDTF1Lincoln, NE14.430$5,000 to $50,000

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.