Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1990

F1 tornado, Comanche and Erath counties, Texas, April 25, 1990

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Comanche and Erath counties on April 25, 1990, touching down at 7:55 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
April 25, 1990
Touchdown
7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Comanche and Erath counties
Touchdown point
31.980, -98.380
Lift-off point
32.020, -98.370
Record number
222

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:13 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningFWD
23:35 UTC03:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
00:58 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningFWD
01:35 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
03:31 UTC07:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
07:25 UTC11:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
11:10 UTC15:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
15:11 UTC18:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:37 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), 00:00Z

0.9 hours before the tornado, 36 km from the path. April 26, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1990-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1429 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 760 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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 1990-04-26The 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 167 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
1429 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
734 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
760 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
167 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
169 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
5.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.1 hours after it, 36 km from the path. April 26, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z on 1990-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 833 joules per kilogram, CIN -180, lifted condensation level 588 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 1990-04-26The 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 -252 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 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
833 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-180 J/kg
Surface CAPE
790 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
588 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-252 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-78 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 1990

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 251:50 AM CDTF1Texas, OK2.050
April 253:30 PM CDTF1Gray, KS25.050$5,000 to $50,000
April 254:30 PM CDTF2Parker, TX4.0300
April 254:44 PM CDTF4Parker, TX10.0880$500,000 to $5 million
April 255:07 PM CDTF0Ness, KS1.050$500 to $5,000
April 255:13 PM CDTF1Parker, TX0.210
April 255:20 PM CDTF2Wise, TX5.0100
April 255:50 PM CDTF0Gove, KS2.023$500 to $5,000
April 255:50 PM CDTF1Wise, TX0.210
April 256:00 PM CDTF3Ness, KS37.0500$500,000 to $5 million
April 256:05 PM CDTF2Wise, TX0.210
April 256:08 PM CDTF1Rooks, KS52.0100$500,000 to $5 million
April 256:25 PM CDTF2Comanche, TX4.050$5 million to $50 million
April 258:00 PM CDTF0Red Willow, NE0.220under $50
April 2510:14 PM CDTF1Erath, TX4.050
April 2510:55 PM CDTF1Parker, TX0.210

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.