Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1995

F0 tornado, Sunnyside, Texas, June 4, 1995

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Castro County on June 4, 1995, touching down at 3:00 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
June 4, 1995
Touchdown
3:00 PM CDT (20:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Castro County
Touchdown point
34.380, -102.350
Record number
658

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:52 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:36 UTC19:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
19:43 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
19:52 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA
20:44 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
21:14 UTC22:00 UTCTornado 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. June 4, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1995-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1861 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 585 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 1995-06-04The 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 423 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
1861 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
716 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
585 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
423 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
389 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
15.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.0 hours after it, 112 km from the path. June 5, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1995-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -32360, lifted condensation level 2814 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1995-06-05The 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 104 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32360 J/kg
Surface CAPE
173 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2814 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:01 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 4, 1995

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 42:50 PM CDTF1Castro, TX2.050
June 42:50 PM CDTF0Hockley, TX0.220
June 43:00 PM CDTF1Castro, TX3.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 43:00 PM CDTF0Castro, TX0.110
June 43:00 PM CDTF0Castro, TX0.110
June 43:00 PM CDTF0Castro, TX0.110
June 43:00 PM CDTF0Castro, TX0.110
June 43:12 PM CDTF0Castro, TX0.550
June 45:30 PM CDTF0Dawson, TX0.240
June 47:29 PM CDTF1Dawson, TX2.0110
June 47:30 PM CDTF0Nemaha, NE0.110
June 49:40 PM EDTF1Polk, FL16.050$500,000 to $5 million

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.