Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1991

F0 tornado, Cottle County, Texas, June 1, 1991

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Cottle County on June 1, 1991, touching down at 3:48 PM CDT and reaching 30 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
June 1, 1991
Touchdown
3:48 PM CDT (20:48 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cottle County
Touchdown point
34.100, -100.300
Record number
748

The warnings

23 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:25 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:31 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
20:25 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningLUB
20:57 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
21:25 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningLUB
22:01 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
22:47 UTC00:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningLUB
22:47 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
00:44 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
02:03 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
02:17 UTC06:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningLUB
02:58 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB
03:57 UTC05:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLUB

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 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), 12:00Z

8.8 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. June 1, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1991-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1915 joules per kilogram, CIN -75, lifted condensation level 860 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 1991-06-01The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
1915 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-75 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2317 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
860 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
5.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.2 hours after it, 179 km from the path. June 2, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1991-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 8 joules per kilogram, CIN -322, lifted condensation level 1924 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 00:00Z on 1991-06-02The 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 -36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
8 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-322 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1478 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1924 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Childress Municipal (CDS), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC8269150° 17 kt1007.1TS
20:00 UTC817080° 9 kt1007.5TS
20:04 UTC340° 6 kt1007.8
20:30 UTC340° 30 kt451008.1
21:00 UTC656550° 15 kt1008.5TSRA
21:13 UTC60° 8 kt1008.5
21:35 UTC130° 18 kt1006.1
22:00 UTC6564140° 13 kt1006.4TSRA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1991 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 1, 1991

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 12:00 AM MDTF1Washington, CO6.0100
June 16:00 AM MDTF1Chase, NE4.050$5,000 to $50,000
June 16:30 AM MDTF1Perkins, NE2.023$5,000 to $50,000
June 112:05 PM CDTF0Phelps, NE0.530
June 11:00 PM CDTF1Webster, NE1.040$5,000 to $50,000
June 11:10 PM CDTF0Clay, NE0.530$5,000 to $50,000
June 12:14 PM EDTF0Polk, FL0.110
June 11:25 PM CDTF0Motley, TX0.230
June 11:45 PM CDTF0Webster, NE1.030$500 to $5,000
June 12:20 PM CDTF0Clay, NE1.030$5,000 to $50,000
June 12:40 PM CDTF0Childress, TX0.120
June 15:40 PM CDTF0Butler, KS0.550
June 16:00 PM PDTF0Latah, ID0.120

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.