Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1987
F3 tornado, Shelby, Panola, De Soto and Caddo counties, Texas and Louisiana, November 15, 1987
This F3 tornado ran 48.0 miles across Shelby, Panola, De Soto and Caddo counties on November 15, 1987, touching down at 6:30 PM CST and reaching 500 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 116, 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
- November 15, 1987
- Touchdown
- 6:30 PM CST (00:30 UTC)
- Path length
- 48.0 miles (77.2 km)
- Path width
- 500 yards (457 m)
- Deaths
- 1
- Injuries
- 116
- Property damage
- $5 million to $50 million
- Counties
- Shelby, Panola, De Soto and Caddo counties
- Touchdown point
- 31.870, -94.180
- Lift-off point
- 32.480, -93.750
- Record number
- 605
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
5 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:25 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:25 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | SHV |
| 16:00 UTC | 20:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | SHV |
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 06:30 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 surface observations
Shreveport Regional (SHV), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:00 UTC | 70 | 66 | 130° 12 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 00:00 UTC | 71 | 67 | 130° 12 kt | 22 | 1008.8 | |
| 00:06 UTC | 130° 14 kt | 18 | 1008.8 | |||
| 01:00 UTC | 69 | 67 | 120° 10 kt | 1009.1 | -TSRA | |
| 01:17 UTC | 320° 22 kt | |||||
| 02:00 UTC | 66 | 65 | 260° 8 kt | 1008.8 | -TSRA FG | |
| 02:07 UTC | 60° 6 kt | 1008.1 |
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 November 15, 1987
20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 15 | 9:30 AM CST | F1 | Logan, OK | 0.1 | 30 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| November 15 | 10:30 AM CST | F1 | Marshall, OK | 3.2 | 40 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| November 15 | 11:30 AM CST | F1 | Atoka, OK | 1.0 | 40 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| November 15 | 11:30 AM CST | F2 | Lee, TX | 1.5 | 200 | 8 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| November 15 | 12:08 PM CST | F1 | Bell, TX | 3.0 | 100 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| November 15 | 12:15 PM CST | F2 | Burleson, TX | 10.0 | 500 | 2 | 12 | $500,000 to $5 million |
| November 15 | 12:54 PM CST | F2 | Craig, OK | 1.5 | 50 | 1 | $5,000 to $50,000 | |
| November 15 | 2:00 PM CST | F2 | Madison, TX | 10.0 | 200 | 3 | 2 | $500,000 to $5 million |
| November 15 | 3:03 PM CST | F3 | Anderson, TX | 10.5 | 250 | 1 | 59 | $5 million to $50 million |
| November 15 | 3:45 PM CST | F3 | Cherokee, TX | 33.0 | 500 | 4 | 81 | $5 million to $50 million |
| November 15 | 4:45 PM CST | F2 | Smith, TX | 6.0 | 300 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| November 15 | 5:30 PM CST | F1 | Gregg, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| November 15 | 5:33 PM CST | F2 | Upshur, TX | 7.0 | 900 | 9 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| November 15 | 5:45 PM CST | F1 | Harrison, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| November 15 | 6:35 PM CST | F3 | Cass, TX | 12.2 | 200 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| November 15 | 7:10 PM CST | F0 | Bowie, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| November 15 | 7:40 PM CST | F1 | Bossier Parish, LA | 0.5 | 73 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| November 15 | 7:50 PM CST | F0 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 0.5 | 27 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| November 15 | 8:03 PM CST | F1 | Calcasieu Parish, LA | 0.5 | 27 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| November 15 | 8:15 PM CST | F0 | Webster Parish, LA | 0.2 | 10 |
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.