Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1983

F0 tornado, Harris County, Texas, August 18, 1983

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Harris County on August 18, 1983, touching down at 5:15 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
August 18, 1983
Touchdown
5:15 PM CDT (22:15 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Harris County
Touchdown point
29.680, -95.430
Record number
766

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.

Victoria Regiona, TX (KVCT), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 170 km from the path. August 18, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1983-08-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 472 joules per kilogram, CIN -70, lifted condensation level 932 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, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1983-08-18The 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 47 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
472 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-70 J/kg
Surface CAPE
148 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
932 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Victoria Regiona, TX (KVCT), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 170 km from the path. August 19, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1983-08-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2423 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 1472 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1983-08-19The 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 61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2423 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2184 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1472 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Houston/Will Hobby (HOU), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC160° 22 kt301007.8
22:00 UTC180° 20 kt301008.5
23:00 UTC180° 5 kt221008.8
00:00 UTC180° 14 kt1009.8

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1983 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 18, 1983

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 182:02 AM CDTF0Harris, TX0.330under $50
August 182:15 AM CDTF1Harris, TX0.540under $50
August 182:45 AM CDTF0Harris, TX0.530$50,000 to $500,000
August 183:02 AM CDTF0Harris, TX0.330$500 to $5,000
August 183:20 AM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.330under $50
August 183:30 AM CDTF0Harris, TX0.340under $50
August 185:20 AM CDTF0Harris, TX0.540under $50
August 186:05 AM CDTF0Harris, TX0.330under $50
August 187:20 AM CDTF0Harris, TX1.040under $50
August 1811:10 AM CDTF0Montgomery, TX0.530under $50
August 181:30 PM MDTF1Bannock, ID2.510under $50
August 183:00 PM CDTF2Navarro, TX2.533$500,000 to $5 million
August 183:45 PM MDTF0Albany, WY0.217under $50
August 184:55 PM CDTF0Wharton, TX0.540under $50
August 187:30 PM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.330under $50
August 187:35 PM CDTF0Brazoria, TX0.330under $50
August 188:20 PM CDTF0Harris, TX1.050under $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.