Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1981

F2 tornado, Ector County, Texas, October 15, 1981

This F2 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Ector County on October 15, 1981, touching down at 10:30 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, 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 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
October 15, 1981
Touchdown
10:30 PM CDT (03:30 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Ector County
Touchdown point
31.650, -102.370
Record number
763

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

3.5 hours before the tornado, 37 km from the path. October 16, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1981-10-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1290 joules per kilogram, CIN -28, lifted condensation level 913 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 1981-10-16The 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 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
1290 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-28 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1338 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
913 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.5 hours after it, 37 km from the path. October 16, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1981-10-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 583 joules per kilogram, CIN -37, lifted condensation level 628 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 1981-10-16The 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 169 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
583 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-37 J/kg
Surface CAPE
44 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
628 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
169 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
173 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Midland Intl (MAF), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
02:00 UTC726290° 7 kt1016.9
02:29 UTC270° 9 kt1019
03:00 UTC7064340° 7 kt1018.6-TSRA
03:13 UTC20° 6 kt1019
04:00 UTC696420° 8 kt1019.3-TSRA
05:00 UTC6964330° 10 kt1019.6TSRA
05:09 UTC10° 6 kt1019.6
05:25 UTC350° 10 kt1019

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

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.