Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1983

F1 tornado, Jefferson County, Texas, May 20, 1983

This F1 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Jefferson County on May 20, 1983, touching down at 3:01 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, 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 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 20, 1983
Touchdown
3:01 PM CDT (20:01 UTC)
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
3
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Jefferson County
Touchdown point
29.900, -93.950
Record number
385

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 76 km from the path. May 20, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1983-05-20Temperature 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 -5453, lifted condensation level 1511 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1983-05-20The 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 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5453 J/kg
Surface CAPE
32 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1511 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 76 km from the path. May 21, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1983-05-21Temperature 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 -6923, lifted condensation level 736 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1983-05-21The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6923 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
736 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
530 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Beaumont - Port Arthur (BPT), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:02 UTC50° 7 kt1014.9
19:00 UTC727170° 11 kt1012.5-TSRA FG
19:03 UTC70° 16 kt221011.9
20:00 UTC7070290° 45 kt+TSRAPL
20:10 UTC90° 40 kt601012.9
21:00 UTC646170° 15 kt1012.5TSRA
21:24 UTC70° 18 kt1012.9
22:00 UTC656390° 24 kt1012.5-SHRA FG

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 May 20, 1983

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 201:05 AM CDTF0Austin, TX0.320$500,000 to $5 million
May 201:15 AM CDTF0Liberty, TX0.840$500,000 to $5 million
May 201:30 AM CDTF1Washington, TX1.016714$500,000 to $5 million
May 201:35 AM CDTF1Liberty, TX1.0100$500,000 to $5 million
May 201:55 AM CDTF2Hinds, MS4.077$5,000 to $50,000
May 202:00 AM CDTF1Austin, TX2.5167$50,000 to $500,000
May 202:10 AM CDTF1Austin, TX3.0167$500 to $5,000
May 202:15 AM CDTF1Harris, TX1.5167under $50
May 202:20 AM CDTF2Harris, TX7.033315$500,000 to $5 million
May 202:30 AM CDTF2Harris, TX12.033317$500,000 to $5 million
May 206:30 AM CDTF3Avoyelles Parish, LA2.0200$5,000 to $50,000
May 201:13 PM CDTF0Calcasieu Parish, LA0.550under $50
May 201:20 PM CDTF0Harris, TX0.320under $50
May 201:31 PM CDTF0Harris, TX0.320under $50
May 201:55 PM CDTF0Chambers, TX0.320$50,000 to $500,000
May 202:15 PM CDTF0Jefferson, TX0.320$500,000 to $5 million
May 202:35 PM CDTF0Jefferson, TX0.350$50 to $500
May 202:35 PM CDTF0Chambers, TX0.320under $50
May 202:40 PM CDTF0Jefferson, TX1.0100$500,000 to $5 million
May 202:45 PM CDTF2Jefferson, TX3.016719$500,000 to $5 million
May 203:00 PM CDTF2Harris, TX4.033312$50,000 to $500,000
May 203:18 PM CDTF0Hale, TX10.01,320under $50
May 203:30 PM CDTF3Cameron Parish, LA5.0200$50,000 to $500,000
May 203:54 PM CDTF1Floyd, TX2.01,760under $50
May 205:00 PM CDTF0Grimes, TX0.320under $50
May 205:40 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.350under $50
May 206:00 PM CDTF0Harris, TX0.320under $50
May 208:55 PM CDTF0Cottle, TX1.040under $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.