Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1988
F1 tornado, Smith County, Texas, November 19, 1988
This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Smith County on November 19, 1988, touching down at 12:50 PM CST and reaching 10 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.
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 mphthis tornado
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 mph
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
- F1
- Date
- November 19, 1988
- Touchdown
- 12:50 PM CST (18:50 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Smith County
- Touchdown point
- 32.250, -95.050
- Record number
- 642
The warnings
23 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:27 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:27 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | FWD |
| 19:23 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD |
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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:20 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.
Longview/Gregg, TX (KGGG), 12:00Z
6.8 hours before the tornado, 44 km from the path. November 19, 1988.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1724 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -4 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1297 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 543 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 62 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 211 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 196 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.2
- Supercell composite
- 8.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Longview/Gregg, TX (KGGG), 00:00Z
5.2 hours after it, 44 km from the path. November 20, 1988.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10027 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 5 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 543 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 87 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -215 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -136 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.7 K/km
The surface observations
Tyler/Pounds Field (TYR), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | 76 | 72 | 170° 15 kt | 22 | 1005.8 | |
| 18:00 UTC | 75 | 71 | 190° 14 kt | 22 | 1004.4 | TS |
| 19:00 UTC | 73 | 71 | 180° 15 kt | 25 | 1004.1 | TS |
| 20:00 UTC | 61 | 61 | 210° 9 kt | 1005.1 | ||
| 20:20 UTC | 260° 6 kt | 1005.1 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1988 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of November 19, 1988
19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 19 | 8:10 AM CST | F1 | Amite, MS | 2.0 | 120 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| November 19 | 11:48 AM CST | F1 | Simpson, MS | 2.0 | 43 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| November 19 | 1:28 PM CST | F1 | Marion, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| November 19 | 1:40 PM CST | F1 | Cass, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| November 19 | 1:51 PM CST | F1 | Angelina, TX | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| November 19 | 1:55 PM CST | F1 | Newton, MS | 2.5 | 123 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| November 19 | 3:19 PM CST | F1 | Webster Parish, LA | 0.2 | 10 | $50 to $500 | ||
| November 19 | 4:08 PM CST | F0 | Natchitoches Parish, LA | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| November 19 | 6:00 PM CST | F1 | Bolivar, MS | 0.3 | 40 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| November 19 | 6:10 PM CST | F1 | Bolivar, MS | 0.4 | 50 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| November 19 | 6:25 PM CST | F3 | Sunflower, MS | 4.0 | 100 | 3 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| November 19 | 7:15 PM CST | F1 | Panola, MS | 1.0 | 50 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| November 19 | 7:45 PM CST | F1 | Coahoma, MS | 6.0 | 60 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| November 19 | 7:45 PM CST | F2 | Leake, MS | 12.0 | 90 | 2 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| November 19 | 7:50 PM CST | F1 | Issaquena, MS | 1.5 | 50 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| November 19 | 9:00 PM CST | F2 | Madison, TN | 12.0 | 90 | 1 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| November 19 | 9:20 PM CST | F2 | Carroll, MS | 7.0 | 120 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| November 19 | 10:15 PM CST | F3 | Lee, MS | 12.5 | 120 | 2 | 11 | $500,000 to $5 million |
| November 19 | 10:30 PM CST | F1 | Pontotoc, MS | 0.2 | 30 | $5,000 to $50,000 |
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.