Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1988

F0 tornado, Cameron County, Texas, September 16, 1988

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Cameron County on September 16, 1988, touching down at 2:00 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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.

  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
September 16, 1988
Touchdown
2:00 PM CDT (19:00 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Cameron County
Touchdown point
26.180, -97.700
Record number
489

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
04:23 UTC08:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningBRO

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 05:56 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.

Brownsville Intl, TX (KBRO), 12:00Z

7.0 hours before the tornado, 43 km from the path. September 16, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brownsville Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 1988-09-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 0 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Brownsville Intl, TX at 12:00Z on 1988-09-16The 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 302 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
774 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
0 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
302 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
366 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
6.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Brownsville Intl, TX (KBRO), 00:00Z

5.0 hours after it, 43 km from the path. September 17, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Brownsville Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 1988-09-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 103 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 701 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, Brownsville Intl, TX at 00:00Z on 1988-09-17The 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 392 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
103 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
179 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
701 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
392 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
460 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 September 16, 1988

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 169:45 AM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.350$50,000 to $500,000
September 1610:00 AM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.250$5,000 to $50,000
September 1610:45 AM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.5501$50,000 to $500,000
September 1611:15 AM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.250$50,000 to $500,000
September 1611:18 AM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.250
September 1612:01 PM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX3.050$50,000 to $500,000
September 1612:30 PM CDTF0Hidalgo, TX0.2350$50,000 to $500,000
September 161:05 PM CDTF1Dale, AL4.050
September 161:30 PM CDTF0Tallapoosa, AL0.510
September 161:30 PM CDTF0Cameron, TX1.050$50,000 to $500,000
September 162:00 PM CDTF0Saint Tammany Parish, LA0.220$500 to $5,000
September 163:00 PM CDTF1Cameron, TX0.550$500,000 to $5 million
September 164:10 PM CDTF0Tallapoosa, AL0.323
September 164:37 PM CDTF0Crow Wing, MN0.110
September 165:04 PM CDTF0Goliad, TX0.210
September 165:30 PM CDTF0Nueces, TX0.210
September 167:22 PM CDTF0Jackson, MS0.220$5,000 to $50,000
September 167:40 PM CDTF1Hancock, MS0.523$5,000 to $50,000
September 169:00 PM CDTF1Nueces, TX0.523$50,000 to $500,000
September 1610:00 PM CDTF1Bee, TX0.823$50,000 to $500,000

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.