Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1995

F1 tornado, Miami, Texas, June 8, 1995

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Roberts County on June 8, 1995, touching down at 4:55 PM CDT and reaching 200 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 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
June 8, 1995
Touchdown
4:55 PM CDT (21:55 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Roberts County
Touchdown point
35.820, -100.780
Lift-off point
35.870, -100.630
Record number
724

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:53 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:53 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
23:00 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
00:01 UTC01:00 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 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 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

9.9 hours before the tornado, 113 km from the path. June 8, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1995-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 827 joules per kilogram, CIN -259, lifted condensation level 2085 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 1995-06-08The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
827 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-259 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2297 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2085 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.1 hours after it, 113 km from the path. June 9, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1995-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1508 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 2308 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 1995-06-09The 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 42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
1508 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1966 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2308 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
279 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.5
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 8, 1995

30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 82:58 AM MDTF0Greeley, KS0.120
June 84:25 AM CDTF0Benton, MO1.050
June 84:04 PM CDTF1Barry, MO12.02503$50,000 to $500,000
June 84:27 PM CDTF0Gray, TX0.150
June 84:31 PM CDTF4Gray, TX3.02007$5 million to $50 million
June 84:50 PM CDTF0Gray, TX0.3100
June 84:50 PM CDTF2Gray, TX6.040$50,000 to $500,000
June 85:00 PM CDTF1Gray, TX2.0250
June 84:15 PM MDTF0Bonneville, ID0.110
June 85:15 PM CDTF1Harper, OK0.2301$50,000 to $500,000
June 85:15 PM CDTF0Ochiltree, TX1.073
June 85:19 PM CDTF0Donley, TX2.0100
June 85:28 PM CDTF0Taney, MO0.1100
June 85:35 PM CDTF1Roberts, TX10.0250$50,000 to $500,000
June 85:52 PM CDTF0Wayne, MO0.550$5,000 to $50,000
June 85:55 PM CDTF2Donley, TX10.0500
June 85:59 PM CDTF2Gray, TX4.0200$50,000 to $500,000
June 86:10 PM CDTF2Donley, TX9.0400
June 86:10 PM CDTF0Gray, TX2.0100
June 86:21 PM CDTF0Gray, TX1.050
June 86:35 PM CDTF4Gray, TX29.0600$50,000 to $500,000
June 86:43 PM CDTF0Hemphill, TX4.0150
June 87:52 PM EDTF0Person, NC1.033
June 86:53 PM CDTF0Roberts, TX0.550
June 86:55 PM CDTF0Gray, TX0.110
June 86:55 PM CDTF0Gray, TX0.110
June 87:20 PM CDTF0Washington, AR0.130
June 87:45 PM CDTF4Wheeler, TX15.02,200$500,000 to $5 million
June 88:17 PM CDTF0Ellis, OK0.130
June 89:18 PM CDTF2Roger Mills, OK5.0300$50,000 to $500,000

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.