Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1982

F4 tornado, Moore, Hansford, Ochiltree and Beaver counties, Texas and Oklahoma, March 18, 1982

This F4 tornado ran 88.0 miles across Moore, Hansford, Ochiltree and Beaver counties on March 18, 1982, touching down at 11:55 PM CST and reaching 880 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 12, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F4
Date
March 18, 1982
Touchdown
11:55 PM CST (05:55 UTC)
Path length
88.0 miles (141.6 km)
Path width
880 yards (805 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
12
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Moore, Hansford, Ochiltree and Beaver counties
Touchdown point
36.020, -101.730
Lift-off point
36.820, -100.520
Record number
65

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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

5.9 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. March 19, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1982-03-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1086 joules per kilogram, CIN -19, lifted condensation level 1617 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1982-03-19The 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 118 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
1086 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19 J/kg
Surface CAPE
777 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1617 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

6.1 hours after it, 142 km from the path. March 19, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1982-03-19Temperature 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 -13582, lifted condensation level 2207 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1982-03-19The 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 -130 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-13582 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2207 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-130 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Liberal_muni (LBL), 71 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:00 UTC6763180° 10 kt201003.4TS FG

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

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 March 18, 1982

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 1812:50 PM HSTF2Honolulu, HI0.110$50,000 to $500,000
March 187:26 PM CSTF2Seward, KS0.530$5,000 to $50,000
March 188:30 PM MSTF0Curry, NM0.110
March 1811:30 PM CSTF2Haskell, KS48.067$50,000 to $500,000

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.