Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1989

F0 tornado, Moore and Hutchinson counties, Texas, June 10, 1989

This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Moore and Hutchinson counties on June 10, 1989, touching down at 9:15 PM CDT and reaching 100 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 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
June 10, 1989
Touchdown
9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Moore and Hutchinson counties
Touchdown point
35.820, -101.650
Lift-off point
35.820, -101.600
Record number
542

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:08 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:11 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
02:08 UTC02:45 UTCTornado WarningAMA

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 07:05 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

2.3 hours before the tornado, 66 km from the path. June 11, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2507 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 975 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-06-11The 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 30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
2507 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3075 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
975 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

9.7 hours after it, 66 km from the path. June 11, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1989-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 64 joules per kilogram, CIN -414, lifted condensation level 1096 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1989-06-11The 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 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.1939Sfc1 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
64 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-414 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1096 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1989 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 1989

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1010:55 AM EDTF0Franklin, FL10.010
June 1011:21 AM EDTF0Wakulla, FL0.210
June 1011:21 AM EDTF0Wakulla, FL0.210
June 104:50 PM EDTF0Polk, FL0.210$5,000 to $50,000
June 105:00 PM EDTF0Polk, FL0.210$50 to $500
June 104:20 PM CDTF0Ector, TX18.0100
June 104:27 PM CDTF0Ector, TX7.0100
June 105:50 PM CDTF1Brown, TX0.210
June 106:00 PM MDTF1Eddy, NM8.050
June 107:02 PM CDTF0Howard, TX2.090
June 107:30 PM CDTF0Scott, KS0.210
June 107:02 PM MDTF0Lea, NM3.023
June 108:15 PM CDTF0Wichita, KS0.210
June 108:15 PM CDTF0Wichita, KS0.210
June 108:24 PM CDTF0Hall, TX4.0110
June 108:29 PM CDTF1Washington, OK2.060
June 109:07 PM CDTF0Moore, TX2.5110
June 109:40 PM CDTF0Hutchinson, TX4.5120

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.