Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1987

F1 tornado, Caldwell County, Texas, May 3, 1987

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Caldwell County on May 3, 1987, touching down at 11:44 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 3, 1987
Touchdown
11:44 PM CDT (04:44 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Caldwell County
Touchdown point
29.780, -97.530
Record number
90

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:44 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
04:10 UTC05:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
04:44 UTC05:45 UTCTornado WarningEWX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:00 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Victoria Regiona, TX (KVCT), 00:00Z

4.7 hours before the tornado, 120 km from the path. May 4, 1987.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1987-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3052 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 743 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, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1987-05-04The 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 -11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
3052 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2775 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
743 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-9 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Victoria Regiona, TX (KVCT), 12:00Z

7.3 hours after it, 120 km from the path. May 4, 1987.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1987-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2092 joules per kilogram, CIN -131, lifted condensation level 558 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, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z on 1987-05-04The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
2092 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-131 J/kg
Surface CAPE
119 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
558 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-24 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 3, 1987

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 32:40 PM CDTF0Cimarron, OK0.130
May 34:13 PM CDTF2Haskell, KS3.0100$500,000 to $5 million
May 36:07 PM CDTF0Finney, KS0.5100
May 311:44 PM CDTF1Caldwell, TX1.050

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.