Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1990

F2 tornado, Ochiltree County, Texas, May 31, 1990

This F2 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Ochiltree County on May 31, 1990, touching down at 10:45 PM CDT and reaching 450 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
May 31, 1990
Touchdown
10:45 PM CDT (03:45 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
450 yards (411 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Ochiltree County
Touchdown point
36.080, -100.970
Lift-off point
36.050, -100.850
Record number
500

The warnings

46 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:59 UTC, 46 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:47 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
22:04 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
23:34 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
23:41 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA
00:28 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA
01:16 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
02:00 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
02:59 UTC04:00 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 06:48 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

3.8 hours before the tornado, 117 km from the path. June 1, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1990-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 49 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 3540 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 1990-06-01The 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 9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
49 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
20 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3540 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.2 hours after it, 117 km from the path. June 1, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1990-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 300 joules per kilogram, CIN -291, lifted condensation level 883 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 1990-06-01The 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 355 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
300 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-291 J/kg
Surface CAPE
212 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
883 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
355 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
375 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of May 31, 1990

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 314:30 PM CDTF1Ochiltree, TX7.0177$50 to $500
May 315:09 PM CDTF0Ochiltree, TX1.250
May 315:50 PM CDTF0Iberia Parish, LA0.220
May 316:41 PM CDTF3Ochiltree, TX14.01,407$500,000 to $5 million
May 316:45 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX1.360$500 to $5,000
May 317:05 PM CDTF1Saint Charles Parish, LA0.220
May 318:15 PM CDTF2Hansford, TX5.5600$500,000 to $5 million
May 318:48 PM CDTF1Dawson, TX2.5130
May 319:08 PM CDTF0Ochiltree, TX0.770
May 319:14 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.650
May 3111:15 PM CDTF0Hemphill, TX0.677
May 3111:41 PM CDTF0Hemphill, TX0.570$50 to $500
May 3111:58 PM CDTF1Hemphill, TX1.190under $50
May 3112:23 AM CDTF0Wheeler, TX0.880$50 to $500
May 3112:49 AM CDTF0Wheeler, TX0.667

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.