Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1983

F1 tornado, Briscoe County, Texas, May 13, 1983

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Briscoe County on May 13, 1983, touching down at 3:42 PM CDT and reaching 80 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 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
May 13, 1983
Touchdown
3:42 PM CDT (20:42 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
80 yards (73 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Briscoe County
Touchdown point
34.380, -101.130
Record number
269

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

8.7 hours before the tornado, 108 km from the path. May 13, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1983-05-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 325 joules per kilogram, CIN -244, lifted condensation level 1414 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 1983-05-13The 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 38 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
325 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-244 J/kg
Surface CAPE
976 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1414 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.3 hours after it, 108 km from the path. May 14, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1983-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 148 joules per kilogram, CIN -266, lifted condensation level 1183 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 1983-05-14The 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 115 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
148 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-266 J/kg
Surface CAPE
442 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1183 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
115 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 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

The other tornadoes of May 13, 1983

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 132:30 PM CDTF0Moore, TX0.550under $50
May 133:30 PM CDTF1Tillman, TX to OK6.850under $50
May 135:20 PM CDTF0Hall, TX0.360under $50
May 136:25 PM CDTF0Jefferson, OK1.050under $50
May 136:35 PM CDTF0Custer, OK0.150under $50
May 136:39 PM CDTF2Harmon, OK15.0500$50,000 to $500,000
May 136:40 PM CDTF1Custer, OK9.0150$50,000 to $500,000
May 137:05 PM CDTF0Harmon, OK0.150under $50
May 137:09 PM CDTF0Carter, OK0.110under $50
May 138:00 PM CDTF1Kingfisher, OK2.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 138:05 PM CDTF3Kingfisher, OK8.8250$50,000 to $500,000
May 138:06 PM CDTF1Kingfisher, OK0.317$5,000 to $50,000
May 138:20 PM CDTF0Kiowa, OK0.150under $50
May 138:45 PM CDTF2Kiowa, OK0.150$5,000 to $50,000
May 138:45 PM CDTF1Ellis, OK2.540$500 to $5,000
May 139:50 PM CDTF0Kiowa, OK0.150under $50
May 1310:14 PM CDTF0Jackson, OK0.150under $50
May 1310:45 PM CDTF2Caddo, OK2.050$50,000 to $500,000
May 1310:50 PM CDTF1Logan, OK0.150under $50
May 1310:50 PM CDTF0Caddo, OK0.150under $50
May 1310:55 PM CDTF2Murray, OK7.02001$50,000 to $500,000
May 1311:10 PM CDTF2Caddo, OK0.150$5,000 to $50,000
May 1311:25 PM CDTF0Comanche, OK0.150under $50
May 1311:45 PM CDTF1Grady, OK0.150under $50
May 1312:20 AM CDTF0Cleveland, OK0.150under $50
May 1312:20 AM CDTF2Hughes, OK0.150$5,000 to $50,000
May 1312:30 AM CDTF0Pontotoc, OK0.150under $50
May 1312:55 AM CDTF0Seminole, OK0.150under $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.