Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1981

F1 tornado, Irion County, Texas, May 15, 1981

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Irion County on May 15, 1981, touching down at 7:30 PM CDT and reaching 40 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 15, 1981
Touchdown
7:30 PM CDT (00:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Irion County
Touchdown point
31.300, -101.750
Record number
207

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

0.5 hours before the tornado, 84 km from the path. May 16, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1981-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2229 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 776 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 1981-05-16The 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 92 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
2229 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2397 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
776 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
6.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.5 hours after it, 84 km from the path. May 16, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1981-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6235, lifted condensation level 2270 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1981-05-16The 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 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6235 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1047 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2270 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
62 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 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 May 15, 1981

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 155:09 PM EDTF2Cecil, MD1.5272$500,000 to $5 million
May 158:25 PM CDTF1Tom Green, TX0.520
May 1510:15 PM CDTF1McCulloch, TX2.0100
May 1510:50 PM CDTF2San Saba, TX8.0150
May 1511:20 PM CDTF1Lampasas, TX0.110
May 1512:25 AM CDTF0Llano, TX0.330

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.