Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1990

F3 tornado, Jones County, Texas, May 14, 1990

This F3 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Jones County on May 14, 1990, touching down at 6:48 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2.

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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
May 14, 1990
Touchdown
6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
County
Jones County
Touchdown point
32.880, -99.880
Record number
323

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:41 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:03 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
22:38 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningFWD
23:41 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningFWD
00:43 UTC01:45 UTCTornado 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 07:17 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

11.8 hours before the tornado, 182 km from the path. May 14, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 12:00Z on 1990-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1272 joules per kilogram, CIN -377, lifted condensation level 1024 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 1990-05-14The 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 52 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
1272 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-377 J/kg
Surface CAPE
40 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1024 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.2 hours after it, 182 km from the path. May 15, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Stephenville/Cla, TX at 00:00Z on 1990-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2906 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 1212 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 00:00Z on 1990-05-15The 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 69 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
2906 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1702 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1212 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
4.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 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 May 14, 1990

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 145:30 PM CDTF1King, TX2.0150
May 145:45 PM CDTF2Jones, TX2.01002$50,000 to $500,000
May 146:08 PM CDTF2Jones, TX0.2102
May 146:20 PM CDTF1Jones, TX0.210
May 146:30 PM CDTF2Jones, TX0.2103
May 147:10 PM CDTF1Knox, TX7.050
May 147:47 PM CDTF1Jones, TX0.210
May 148:30 PM CDTF1Jones, TX0.210
May 149:20 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS1.027
May 149:21 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS1.027
May 149:33 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS0.527
May 149:48 PM CDTF0Chautauqua, KS0.527
May 1410:10 PM CDTF0Chautauqua, KS1.027$500 to $5,000
May 1410:15 PM CDTF0Montgomery, KS0.120
May 1410:30 PM CDTF0Chautauqua, KS5.027
May 1410:45 PM CDTF1Montgomery, KS7.050$500 to $5,000

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.