Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1983

F3 tornado, Hidalgo County, Texas, March 15, 1983

This F3 tornado ran 6.1 miles across Hidalgo County on March 15, 1983, touching down at 5:00 PM CST and reaching 900 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 10, 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
March 15, 1983
Touchdown
5:00 PM CST (23:00 UTC)
Path length
6.1 miles (9.8 km)
Path width
900 yards (823 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
10
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Hidalgo County
Touchdown point
26.050, -98.320
Lift-off point
25.950, -98.280
Record number
90

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.

Brownsville Intl, TX (KBRO), 12:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 91 km from the path. March 15, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brownsville Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 1983-03-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 265 joules per kilogram, CIN -239, lifted condensation level 655 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, Brownsville Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 1983-03-15The 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 50 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
265 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-239 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
655 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Brownsville Intl, TX (KBRO), 00:00Z

1.0 hours after it, 91 km from the path. March 16, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brownsville Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 1983-03-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1007 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 668 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, Brownsville Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 1983-03-16The 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 66 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 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
1007 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
727 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
668 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-112 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.3
Supercell composite
-1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

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.