Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1989

F1 tornado, Ector County, Texas, June 6, 1989

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Ector County on June 6, 1989, touching down at 5:50 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
June 6, 1989
Touchdown
5:50 PM CDT (22:50 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Ector County
Touchdown point
31.780, -102.470
Lift-off point
31.800, -102.400
Record number
457

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
21:32 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
22:42 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF

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 General Thunderstorms 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 28 km from the path. June 6, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1989-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1400 joules per kilogram, CIN -135, lifted condensation level 902 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1989-06-06The 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 178 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
1400 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-135 J/kg
Surface CAPE
20 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
902 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
178 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
7.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 28 km from the path. June 7, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 746 joules per kilogram, CIN -199, lifted condensation level 1919 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-06-07The 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 22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
746 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-199 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1424 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1919 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Midland Intl (MAF), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC9953180° 13 kt251008.8
22:00 UTC9757140° 14 kt221007.1
23:00 UTC8463190° 24 kt381003
00:00 UTC8864160° 16 kt1006.4

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

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 6, 1989

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 612:30 PM EDTF1Pasco, FL0.373$50,000 to $500,000
June 63:20 PM CDTF1Pecos, TX4.0150$5,000 to $50,000
June 64:10 PM CDTF0Hale, TX0.560
June 64:45 PM CDTF1Hale, TX2.0120$5,000 to $50,000
June 64:46 PM CDTF0Hale, TX1.090
June 64:47 PM CDTF1Stevens, KS1.0100
June 64:49 PM CDTF2Hale, TX2.5200$50,000 to $500,000
June 64:58 PM CDTF3Seward, KS12.0500$5,000 to $50,000
June 65:50 PM CDTF3Crosby, TX30.0900$5,000 to $50,000
June 65:05 PM MDTF1Prowers, CO2.023$5,000 to $50,000
June 67:00 PM CDTF1Pierce, ND0.220$5,000 to $50,000
June 66:12 PM MDTF0Keith, NE0.130under $50
June 68:55 PM CDTF0Nelson, ND0.213
June 68:59 PM CDTF0Roger Mills, OK15.020
June 69:00 PM CDTF0Ramsey, ND0.213
June 69:13 PM CDTF1Lipscomb, TX1.060
June 69:33 PM CDTF1Lipscomb, TX1.040
June 69:56 PM CDTF0Beckham, OK2.930

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.