Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1982

F1 tornado, Angelina County, Texas, April 19, 1982

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Angelina County on April 19, 1982, touching down at 4:45 PM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50 to $500 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
April 19, 1982
Touchdown
4:45 PM CST (22:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
County
Angelina County
Touchdown point
31.470, -94.900
Record number
185

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.

Longview/Gregg, TX (KGGG), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. April 19, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Longview/Gregg, TX at 12:00Z on 1982-04-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 712 joules per kilogram, CIN -86, lifted condensation level 522 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, Longview/Gregg, TX at 12:00Z on 1982-04-19The 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 290 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
712 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-86 J/kg
Surface CAPE
79 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
522 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
290 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
255 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
8.7
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Longview/Gregg, TX (KGGG), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 102 km from the path. April 20, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Longview/Gregg, TX at 00:00Z on 1982-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1248 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 550 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, Longview/Gregg, TX at 00:00Z on 1982-04-20The 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 21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
1248 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1502 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
550 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-29 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.2
Supercell composite
-1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1982 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 19, 1982

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 193:20 PM CSTF1Bienville Parish, LA0.127$5,000 to $50,000
April 193:30 PM CSTF2Lincoln Parish, LA15.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 193:30 PM CSTF1Nacogdoches, TX3.0100$50 to $500
April 194:55 PM CSTF0Bossier Parish, LA0.110$50 to $500
April 195:00 PM CSTF2Madison Parish, LA5.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 195:03 PM CSTF1Shelby, TX0.110under $50
April 195:10 PM CSTF0Ouachita Parish, LA0.110$50 to $500
April 195:39 PM CSTF1Panola, TX0.110under $50
April 195:55 PM CSTF1Red River Parish, LA0.110$50 to $500
April 196:00 PM CSTF0Bienville Parish, LA0.110$50 to $500
April 199:15 PM CSTF0De Soto Parish, LA0.110under $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.