Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1987

F1 tornado, Dawson County, Texas, May 29, 1987

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Dawson County on May 29, 1987, touching down at 6:10 PM CDT and reaching 60 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 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 29, 1987
Touchdown
6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
60 yards (55 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Dawson County
Touchdown point
32.730, -101.920
Record number
195

The warnings

19 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:51 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:47 UTC04:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningMAF
22:51 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningMAF
23:55 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningMAF

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

11.2 hours before the tornado, 91 km from the path. May 29, 1987.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1987-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 384 joules per kilogram, CIN -163, lifted condensation level 1262 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 1987-05-29The 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 110 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
384 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-163 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1103 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1262 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
110 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.8 hours after it, 91 km from the path. May 30, 1987.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1987-05-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 706 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 1053 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 1987-05-30The 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 -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 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
706 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
756 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1053 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-11 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Midland Intl (MAF), 91 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC7863130° 8 kt1014.6
23:00 UTC7763160° 11 kt1014.2
23:36 UTC170° 15 kt1012.9
23:59 UTC150° 6 kt1014.9
00:00 UTC6262170° 12 kt1014.6+TSRAPLGR
01:00 UTC180° 11 kt1011.9

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1987 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 29, 1987

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2912:45 PM MDTF1Cache, UT0.240$500 to $5,000
May 291:25 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE0.120under $50
May 293:00 PM CDTF0Todd, SD0.210
May 293:53 PM CDTF0Saint Croix, WI0.150
May 295:40 PM CDTF0Parmer, TX1.060
May 295:53 PM CDTF1Dawson, TX4.0110
May 296:25 PM CDTF2Lubbock, TX8.0803$50,000 to $500,000
May 296:39 PM CDTF0Hockley, TX0.830
May 298:45 PM CDTF0Castro, TX2.060
May 2910:42 PM CDTF0Castro, TX1.030

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.