Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1986

F3 tornado, Archer and Clay counties, Texas, May 14, 1986

This F3 tornado ran 20.0 miles across Archer and Clay counties on May 14, 1986, touching down at 7:30 PM CDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4, 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
May 14, 1986
Touchdown
7:30 PM CDT (00:30 UTC)
Path length
20.0 miles (32.2 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
4
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Archer and Clay counties
Touchdown point
33.530, -98.700
Lift-off point
33.570, -98.220
Record number
272

The warnings

55 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:35 UTC, 55 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:35 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:00 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
23:35 UTC00:35 UTCTornado WarningFWD
00:32 UTC00:40 UTCTornado WarningFWD

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.

Fort Sill, OK (KFSI), 12:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 122 km from the path. May 15, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Sill, OK at 12:00Z on 1986-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 957 joules per kilogram, CIN -287, lifted condensation level 656 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, Fort Sill, OK at 12:00Z on 1986-05-15The 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 18 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
957 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-287 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
656 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
115 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
154 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 May 14, 1986

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 142:13 PM CDTF0Nowata, OK1.050
May 143:17 PM EDTF0Pasco, FL1.030$500 to $5,000
May 142:30 PM CDTF0Dallam, TX0.210
May 142:30 PM CDTF0Randall, TX3.050
May 143:00 PM CDTF0Stanton, KS0.3100
May 143:05 PM CDTF1Oklahoma, OK0.250
May 143:08 PM CDTF0Armstrong, TX0.230
May 143:29 PM CDTF1Jackson, OK6.0300
May 143:33 PM CDTF0Stanton, KS0.5100
May 143:42 PM CDTF1Jackson, OK6.0300$50,000 to $500,000
May 144:05 PM CDTF1Tillman, OK1.173$50,000 to $500,000
May 144:09 PM CDTF2Kiowa, OK3.0500$50,000 to $500,000
May 145:30 PM CDTF0Baylor, TX1.010
May 146:26 PM CDTF1Okfuskee, OK2.0150$5,000 to $50,000
May 146:49 PM CDTF1Garvin, OK0.523
May 148:42 PM CDTF0Montague, TX0.210
May 148:35 PM MDTF1Yuma, CO0.530
May 148:35 PM MDTF1Yuma, CO0.530
May 148:35 PM MDTF1Yuma, CO0.530

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.