Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1988

F0 tornado, Comal County, Texas, September 17, 1988

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Comal County on September 17, 1988, touching down at 9:00 AM CDT and reaching 10 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 17, 1988
Touchdown
9:00 AM CDT (14:00 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Comal County
Touchdown point
29.900, -98.270
Record number
504

The warnings

16 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:44 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:44 UTC14:30 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 06:43 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), 12:00Z

2.0 hours before the tornado, 177 km from the path. September 17, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 12:00Z 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 5804 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 485 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 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 154 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
5804 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2924 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
485 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
154 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.9
Supercell composite
22.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

10.0 hours after it, 177 km from the path. September 18, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Victoria Regiona, TX at 00:00Z on 1988-09-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1020 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 688 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 1988-09-18The 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 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
1020 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2626 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
688 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
5.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 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 17, 1988

25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 175:10 AM CDTF0Karnes, TX0.210$5,000 to $50,000
September 175:45 AM CDTF1Bexar, TX4.03011$500,000 to $5 million
September 176:49 AM CDTF2Bexar, TX5.0503$5 million to $50 million
September 177:30 AM CDTF1Bexar, TX6.0503$5 million to $50 million
September 177:44 AM CDTF0Fayette, TX0.210$5,000 to $50,000
September 179:40 AM CDTF0Atascosa, TX0.210
September 1710:30 AM CDTF0Caldwell, TX0.210$5,000 to $50,000
September 1710:50 AM CDTF0Edwards, TX0.210
September 1712:13 PM CDTF0Maverick, TX0.210
September 1712:43 PM CDTF0McCulloch, TX0.210
September 1712:43 PM CDTF1McCulloch, TX0.210$500 to $5,000
September 171:45 PM CDTF0Dimmit, TX0.210$5,000 to $50,000
September 172:20 PM CDTF0Val Verde, TX0.210
September 172:56 PM CDTF0Runnels, TX4.060
September 173:15 PM CDTF0Bosque, TX0.210
September 174:09 PM CDTF0Concho, TX3.580$500 to $5,000
September 174:50 PM CDTF0Concho, TX1.030
September 174:50 PM CDTF0Concho, TX0.530
September 174:58 PM CDTF0Concho, TX2.050
September 175:10 PM CDTF0Concho, TX1.040
September 175:10 PM CDTF0Concho, TX1.540
September 175:45 PM CDTF2Val Verde, TX11.0632$500,000 to $5 million
September 176:25 PM CDTF1Runnels, TX3.060$5,000 to $50,000
September 176:39 PM CDTF0Val Verde, TX0.210
September 176:52 PM CDTF0Val Verde, TX0.210$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.