Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1993

F0 tornado, Briscoe, Texas, May 7, 1993

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Hemphill County on May 7, 1993, touching down at 5:55 PM CDT and reaching 73 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 7, 1993
Touchdown
5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
73 yards (67 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hemphill County
Touchdown point
35.670, -100.280
Record number
253

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:18 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:04 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 7, 1993

45 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 73:06 PM CDTF0Minnehaha, SD5.050
May 73:06 PM CDTF2Lincoln, SD15.01001$50,000 to $500,000
May 73:06 PM CDTF2Lincoln, SD15.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 73:57 PM CDTF2Lyon, IA to SD11.5100$50,000 to $500,000
May 74:20 PM CDTF1Rock, MN5.5100
May 74:30 PM CDTF1Hutchinson, SD7.050$5,000 to $50,000
May 75:05 PM CDTF2Pipestone, MN8.0150$500,000 to $5 million
May 75:10 PM CDTF0Russell, KS4.050$500 to $5,000
May 75:30 PM CDTF1Pawnee, KS4.050$50,000 to $500,000
May 75:31 PM CDTF0Stafford, KS0.110
May 75:40 PM CDTF0Stafford, KS0.513
May 75:42 PM CDTF0Kiowa, KS7.020
May 75:45 PM CDTF1Franklin, NE10.0200
May 75:45 PM CDTF0Pawnee, KS3.020$50,000 to $500,000
May 75:50 PM CDTF0Barton, KS0.550$500 to $5,000
May 75:55 PM CDTF1Murray, MN4.0100
May 75:58 PM CDTF0Stafford, KS0.513
May 75:59 PM CDTF0Kiowa, KS5.020
May 76:05 PM CDTF4Russell, KS25.588016$500,000 to $5 million
May 76:15 PM CDTF2McCook, SD1.073$50,000 to $500,000
May 76:15 PM CDTF2Hutchinson, SD2.073$50,000 to $500,000
May 76:20 PM CDTF1Lyon, MN3.0100
May 76:20 PM CDTF3McCook, SD10.0100$500,000 to $5 million
May 76:20 PM CDTF1Barton, KS0.323$5,000 to $50,000
May 76:25 PM CDTF1Murray, MN4.0100
May 76:25 PM CDTF0Russell, KS2.050$500 to $5,000
May 76:31 PM CDTF0Collingsworth, TX1.0100
May 76:35 PM CDTF1Sherman, NE7.0200$500,000 to $5 million
May 76:37 PM CDTF1Lyon, MN9.0100
May 76:45 PM CDTF0Collingsworth, TX1.0100
May 76:49 PM CDTF0Smith, KS1.573$50 to $500
May 76:50 PM CDTF1Webster, NE7.0200$500,000 to $5 million
May 76:52 PM CDTF2Franklin, NE40.0200$500,000 to $5 million
May 76:53 PM CDTF0Lincoln, KS13.0440$5,000 to $50,000
May 76:55 PM CDTF1Moody, SD15.050$50,000 to $500,000
May 77:20 PM CDTF1Lyon, MN1.0704
May 77:23 PM CDTF2Pratt, KS19.5440$500 to $5,000
May 77:25 PM CDTF2Hall, NE2.0150$500,000 to $5 million
May 77:45 PM CDTF0Stafford, KS2.020
May 77:50 PM CDTF3Webster, NE75.02,633$5 million to $50 million
May 78:05 PM CDTF1Rice, KS1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 78:10 PM CDTF1Chippewa, MN5.0100$500,000 to $5 million
May 78:22 PM CDTF0Beckham, OK0.113$5,000 to $50,000
May 78:27 PM CDTF0Yellow Medicine, MN0.110
May 79:48 PM CDTF0Kiowa, OK0.870$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.