Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1992

F0 tornado, Wilson County, Texas, May 16, 1992

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Wilson County on May 16, 1992, touching down at 8:25 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
May 16, 1992
Touchdown
8:25 PM CDT (01:25 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Wilson County
Touchdown point
29.130, -98.200
Record number
243

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
01:27 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningEWX
02:13 UTC06:15 UTCFlash Flood 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 06:16 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

1.4 hours before the tornado, 177 km from the path. May 17, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1992-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1821 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 604 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 1992-05-17The 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 45 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1821 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2848 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
604 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
103 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

10.6 hours after it, 177 km from the path. May 17, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1992-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 48 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 736 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 12:00Z on 1992-05-17The 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 118 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939Sfc1 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
48 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
66 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
736 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
188 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

San Antonio/Stinson (SSF), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC330° 20 kt1011.2
00:17 UTC60° 7 kt1011.9
01:00 UTC90° 13 kt1012.2
01:23 UTC120° 10 kt1013.2
02:00 UTC40° 5 kt1013.2
02:26 UTC40° 5 kt1013.2
03:00 UTC70° 7 kt1013.9

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1992 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 16, 1992

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 162:10 AM CDTF0Howard, NE0.210
May 168:05 AM CDTF0Jefferson Parish, LA0.110$500 to $5,000
May 162:45 PM CDTF1Price, WI10.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 163:30 PM CDTF1Portage, WI1.2400$50,000 to $500,000
May 165:28 PM CDTF0Cerro Gordo, IA0.220$5,000 to $50,000
May 166:30 PM CDTF2Dixon, NE10.0100$500,000 to $5 million
May 166:45 PM CDTF1Rapides Parish, LA0.220$5,000 to $50,000
May 166:48 PM CDTF0Wayne, NE0.220
May 167:10 PM CDTF2Portage, WI11.0400$50,000 to $500,000
May 167:30 PM CDTF1Waupaca, WI1.5100$5,000 to $50,000
May 168:20 PM CDTF1Outagamie, WI5.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 169:15 PM CDTF0Harrison, IA0.113$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.