Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1985

F0 tornado, Gaines County, Texas, May 13, 1985

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Gaines County on May 13, 1985, touching down at 5:50 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
May 13, 1985
Touchdown
5:50 PM CDT (22:50 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Gaines County
Touchdown point
32.930, -102.370
Record number
255

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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 110 km from the path. May 13, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1985-05-13Temperature 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 -9545, lifted condensation level 3474 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1985-05-13The 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 -136 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9545 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3474 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-136 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
7 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

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 110 km from the path. May 14, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1985-05-14Temperature 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 -8234, lifted condensation level 3643 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1985-05-14The 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 23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8234 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3643 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
37 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hobbs/Lea Co. (HOB), 84 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC7626.24310° 22 kt1009.5
22:00 UTC7624.26320° 20 kt301009.1
23:00 UTC7521.2330° 20 kt301009.5
00:00 UTC7320.12330° 20 kt301010.2

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1985 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 13, 1985

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 131:05 AM CDTF0Scott, KS0.110
May 136:15 AM CDTF0Sterling, TX0.127
May 138:20 AM CDTF0Jackson, OK0.110
May 1311:42 AM CDTF2Dallas, TX4.57716$500,000 to $5 million
May 1312:00 PM CDTF0Rockwall, TX0.530
May 1312:30 PM CDTF2Hunt, TX8.07723$500,000 to $5 million
May 131:30 PM CDTF2Lamar, TX4.0778$500,000 to $5 million
May 132:24 PM CDTF0Bell, TX0.530
May 132:47 PM CDTF0Falls, TX0.530
May 132:50 PM CDTF1Howard, AR1.050$5,000 to $50,000
May 133:15 PM CDTF0Limestone, TX0.530
May 135:17 PM CDTF1Gasconade, MO6.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 135:50 PM CDTF0Blaine, OK0.110

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.