Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1981

F0 tornado, Scurry County, Texas, June 3, 1981

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Scurry County on June 3, 1981, touching down at 11:00 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did under $50 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
June 3, 1981
Touchdown
11:00 PM CDT (04:00 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Scurry County
Touchdown point
32.650, -101.130
Record number
360

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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

4.0 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. June 4, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1981-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1620 joules per kilogram, CIN -87, lifted condensation level 1951 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1981-06-04The 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 15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
1620 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1503 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1951 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

8.0 hours after it, 127 km from the path. June 4, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1981-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 27 joules per kilogram, CIN -113, lifted condensation level 1136 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1981-06-04The 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 113 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
27 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-113 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1136 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 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 June 3, 1981

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 31:05 AM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.120$500 to $5,000
June 312:30 PM CDTF0Kiowa, KS0.517
June 31:05 PM CDTF2Concordia Parish, LA0.530$500 to $5,000
June 32:55 PM CDTF0Smith, TX0.110
June 32:20 PM MDTF2Denver, CO0.150$500,000 to $5 million
June 32:55 PM MDTF2Adams, CO2.313342$5 million to $50 million
June 33:18 PM MDTF1Weld, CO0.9502$500,000 to $5 million
June 33:20 PM MDTF1Weld, CO0.340
June 33:30 PM MDTF1Douglas, CO0.340
June 33:48 PM MDTF1Weld, CO0.240
June 34:00 PM MDTF1Weld, CO0.240
June 36:30 PM CDTF0Jones, TX0.110
June 39:30 PM CDTF1Oklahoma, OK1.01002$500,000 to $5 million
June 39:30 PM CDTF2Terry, TX2.040$5,000 to $50,000
June 39:55 PM CDTF1Lynn, TX1.030under $50

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.