Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1986

F0 tornado, Hall County, Texas, October 1, 1986

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Hall County on October 1, 1986, touching down at 7:40 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
October 1, 1986
Touchdown
7:40 PM CDT (00:40 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hall County
Touchdown point
34.720, -100.530
Record number
723

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), 00:00Z

0.7 hours before the tornado, 121 km from the path. October 2, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1986-10-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1673 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 925 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 1986-10-02The 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 113 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
1673 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2332 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
925 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
6.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

11.3 hours after it, 121 km from the path. October 2, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1986-10-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1376 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 608 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 1986-10-02The 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 158 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
1376 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1361 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
608 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
3.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Childress Municipal (CDS), 39 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

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 October 1, 1986

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 12:00 AM EDTF2Delaware, NY0.110$50,000 to $500,000
October 13:40 PM EDTF2Fayette, PA4.51002$500,000 to $5 million
October 15:30 PM EDTF3Doddridge, WV1.02001$50,000 to $500,000
October 15:20 PM CDTF0Steuben, IN to OH16.010
October 15:50 PM CDTF0Ward, TX0.230
October 17:40 PM CDTF0Collingsworth, TX0.230
October 18:15 PM CDTF1Harmon, OK10.050
October 19:25 PM CDTF0Washita, OK0.130
October 110:07 PM CDTF0Kiowa, OK0.130

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.