Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1989

F1 tornado, Hood County, Texas, June 7, 1989

This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Hood County on June 7, 1989, touching down at 7:14 AM CDT 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.

  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 7, 1989
Touchdown
7:14 AM CDT (12:14 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hood County
Touchdown point
32.450, -97.770
Record number
467

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:07 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:07 UTC13:15 UTCTornado WarningFWD
22:02 UTC00:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD

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 06:13 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.

Stephenville/Cla, TX (KSEP), 12:00Z

0.2 hours before the tornado, 40 km from the path. June 7, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z 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 836 joules per kilogram, CIN -273, lifted condensation level 969 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, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z 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 276 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
836 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-273 J/kg
Surface CAPE
24 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
969 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
276 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
614 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Stephenville/Cla, TX (KSEP), 00:00Z

11.8 hours after it, 40 km from the path. June 8, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-06-08Temperature 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 -3869, lifted condensation level 843 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, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-06-08The 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 -58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
-3869 J/kg
Surface CAPE
61 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
843 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 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 7, 1989

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 72:17 PM CDTF2Callahan, TX6.080$5,000 to $50,000
June 73:20 PM CDTF0Eastland, TX0.210
June 73:37 PM CDTF1Cass, TX3.0440
June 73:40 PM CDTF1Wise, TX0.210
June 74:00 PM CDTF1Tarrant, TX0.210
June 74:26 PM CDTF2Titus, TX12.0200
June 74:30 PM CDTF0Hamilton, TX0.210
June 75:27 PM CDTF1Harrison, TX3.0447
June 75:35 PM CDTF1Rusk, TX3.0220
June 75:38 PM CDTF1Harrison, TX3.0220
June 75:47 PM CDTF1Panola, TX4.0220
June 75:50 PM CDTF1Marion, TX3.0447
June 74:55 PM MDTF0Millard, UT0.210under $50
June 75:55 PM CDTF3Panola, TX6.0447$5,000 to $50,000
June 76:05 PM CDTF0Saunders, NE0.130$50 to $500
June 76:27 PM CDTF0Saunders, NE0.230$50 to $500
June 76:30 PM CDTF0Dodge, NE0.150$50 to $500
June 77:00 PM CDTF1Vernon Parish, LA2.040$50,000 to $500,000
June 77:40 PM CDTF2Milam, TX10.01504$500,000 to $5 million
June 76:35 PM PDTF0Lyon, NV1.010$500 to $5,000
June 78:45 PM CDTF0Okaloosa, FL0.210$500 to $5,000
June 79:55 PM CDTF1Vernon Parish, LA0.530$50,000 to $500,000
June 710:30 PM CDTF2Beauregard Parish, LA5.0776$50,000 to $500,000
June 711:50 PM CDTF1Avoyelles Parish, LA0.3402$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.