F4 tornado, Mclean to Allison, Texas, June 8, 1995

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F4

Date

June 8, 1995

Touchdown

6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)

Path length

29.0 miles (46.7 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000 to $500,000

Counties

Gray and Wheeler counties

Touchdown point

35.250, -100.600

Lift-off point

35.550, -100.380

Record number

737

Three additional tornadoes were added to the storm data based on video provided by National Weather Service employee. Fortunately, these were over open country with the only damage occurring to power lines. The one tornado crossed the county line from Donley into Gray at about 1718CST. A violent tornado dropped down just north of McLean and moved north northeast. Several homes received minor damage north of McLean with the Crockett estate, on County Line road, having two homes destroyed and another seriously damaged. But the main destruction occurred in Wheeler county at the Wheeler Stock Yard and several hundred cattle there. A few other businesses received significant damage from this tornado. This last tornado had two small satellite tornadoes with it and crossed the county line between Gray and Hemphill at 1755CST. The start and end times for this tornado have been modified based on additional information.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

56 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:39 UTC, 56 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:31 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 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.

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

30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.