Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1983

F2 tornado, Donley County, Texas, March 3, 1983

This F2 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Donley County on March 3, 1983, touching down at 4:50 PM CST and reaching 880 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 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
March 3, 1983
Touchdown
4:50 PM CST (22:50 UTC)
Path length
5.0 miles (8.0 km)
Path width
880 yards (805 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Donley County
Touchdown point
34.850, -101.000
Lift-off point
34.930, -101.000
Record number
58

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), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 74 km from the path. March 3, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1983-03-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 157 joules per kilogram, CIN -452, lifted condensation level 1205 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 12:00Z on 1983-03-03The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
157 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-452 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1205 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.2 hours after it, 74 km from the path. March 4, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1983-03-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1204 joules per kilogram, CIN -25, lifted condensation level 1120 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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 1983-03-04The 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 74 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
1204 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-25 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2375 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1120 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
3.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Amarillo - Rick Husband Intl (AMA), 74 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC6456140° 12 kt998.6FG
22:00 UTC6655140° 14 kt998DZ
23:00 UTC6455130° 14 kt997.6
00:00 UTC6156140° 15 kt997.6

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 March 3, 1983

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 31:00 PM CSTF1Grady, OK0.120$5,000 to $50,000
March 35:23 PM CSTF0Harmon, OK5.010under $50
March 35:40 PM CSTF0Eastland, TX0.633$500 to $5,000
March 35:59 PM CSTF2Donley, TX5.08801$5,000 to $50,000
March 36:00 PM CSTF0Cherokee, TX0.433$5,000 to $50,000
March 36:15 PM CSTF1Smith, TX0.533$5,000 to $50,000
March 37:05 PM CSTF0Gray, TX0.533under $50
March 35:15 PM PSTF0Placer, CA0.150under $50
March 37:40 PM CSTF1Comanche, TX0.533$5,000 to $50,000
March 38:00 PM CSTF0Upshur, TX0.133under $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.