Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1992

F1 tornado, Crane and Pecos counties, Texas, May 24, 1992

This F1 tornado ran 8.0 miles across Crane and Pecos counties on May 24, 1992, touching down at 7:32 AM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 24, 1992
Touchdown
7:32 AM CDT (12:32 UTC)
Path length
8.0 miles (12.9 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
Counties
Crane and Pecos counties
Touchdown point
31.150, -102.450
Lift-off point
31.180, -102.380
Record number
267

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:17 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:26 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
10:15 UTC11:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
11:18 UTC12:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
12:17 UTC13:15 UTCTornado WarningMAF
20:50 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningMAF
22:32 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningMAF

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 06:19 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

0.5 hours before the tornado, 90 km from the path. May 24, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1992-05-24Temperature 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 -65, lifted condensation level 735 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1992-05-24The 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 198 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
48 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
735 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
292 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 90 km from the path. May 25, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1992-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 556 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 928 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1992-05-25The 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 148 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
556 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1142 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
928 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
148 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 24, 1992

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 243:05 PM CDTF0Forrest, MS2.050$5,000 to $50,000
May 244:05 PM CDTF1Pecos, TX2.673
May 245:38 PM CDTF0Pecos, TX0.450
May 246:25 PM MDTF0Eddy, NM0.110
May 248:35 PM MDTF0Lea, NM0.110
May 2412:50 AM CDTF0Ector, TX0.340

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.