Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1986
F3 tornado, Nolan County, Texas, April 19, 1986
This F3 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Nolan County on April 19, 1986, touching down at 7:15 AM CST and reaching 600 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 100, and did $5 million to $50 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- April 19, 1986
- Touchdown
- 7:15 AM CST (13:15 UTC)
- Path length
- 4.5 miles (7.2 km)
- Path width
- 600 yards (549 m)
- Deaths
- 1
- Injuries
- 100
- Property damage
- $5 million to $50 million
- County
- Nolan County
- Touchdown point
- 32.450, -100.430
- Lift-off point
- 32.480, -100.350
- Record number
- 159
What the Weather Service recorded
The deaths
1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.
| Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct |
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:20 UTC | 14:20 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
| 13:37 UTC | 14:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.
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
1.3 hours before the tornado, 180 km from the path. April 19, 1986.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1960 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -6 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 690 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 347 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 295 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 16.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.2 K/km
Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z
10.7 hours after it, 180 km from the path. April 20, 1986.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 20 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -11 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 80 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 3374 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 64 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 4 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 5 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 46 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 10.1 K/km
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1986 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 19, 1986
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 19 | 6:55 AM CST | F1 | Nolan, TX | 3.0 | 250 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| April 19 | 9:00 AM CST | F0 | Jones, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| April 19 | 11:38 AM CST | F0 | Palo Pinto, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| April 19 | 1:05 PM CST | F0 | Coleman, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| April 19 | 1:45 PM CST | F0 | Comanche, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| April 19 | 2:28 PM CST | F0 | Harrison, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| April 19 | 2:45 PM CST | F1 | Ellis, TX | 1.0 | 10 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| April 19 | 3:15 PM CST | F0 | Cass, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| April 19 | 3:30 PM CST | F1 | McLennan, TX | 0.2 | 10 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| April 19 | 3:40 PM CST | F1 | Hill, TX | 0.2 | 10 | 2 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| April 19 | 4:17 PM CST | F1 | Limestone, TX | 0.2 | 10 | 2 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| April 19 | 4:20 PM CST | F1 | Winn Parish, LA | 0.3 | 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.