Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1991

F0 tornado, Jackson County, Texas, June 16, 1991

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Jackson County on June 16, 1991, touching down at 11:15 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 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 16, 1991
Touchdown
11:15 PM CDT (04:15 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
28.980, -96.680
Record number
873

The warnings

37 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:38 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:43 UTC02:45 UTCTornado WarningEWX
03:38 UTC04:45 UTCTornado WarningEWX

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:00 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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

4.3 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. June 17, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1991-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1387 joules per kilogram, CIN -89, lifted condensation level 1298 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1991-06-17The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
1387 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3761 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1298 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

7.7 hours after it, 153 km from the path. June 17, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1991-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 51 joules per kilogram, CIN -320, lifted condensation level 1420 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1991-06-17The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 knots.1939Sfc1 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
51 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-320 J/kg
Surface CAPE
179 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1420 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 16, 1991

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 163:45 PM CDTF0Jefferson Parish, LA0.513$5,000 to $50,000
June 163:20 PM MDTF1Saguache, CO6.5100$50,000 to $500,000
June 168:10 PM CDTF0Kerr, TX0.210
June 168:40 PM CDTF0Jackson, TX0.210
June 1610:23 PM CDTF0Jackson, TX0.130$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.