Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1995

F0 tornado, Lela, Texas, May 22, 1995

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Wheeler County on May 22, 1995, touching down at 9:01 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 22, 1995
Touchdown
9:01 PM CDT (02:01 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
73 yards (67 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Wheeler County
Touchdown point
35.220, -100.080
Record number
533

What the Weather Service recorded

A significant severe weather day with five tornadoes and hail up to softball-size. Damage in Pampa was estimate at over $200,000. The majority of the remaining damage occurred to automobile along highway corridors. All five tornadoes we over open county and were reported by Skywarn spotters, Vortex spotters or local TV meteorologists.

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

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:46 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:55 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
23:24 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA
23:59 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningAMA
00:58 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
01:46 UTC02:15 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 06:07 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 1995 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 22, 1995

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 223:03 PM CDTF0Trego, KS0.550
May 223:10 PM CDTF0Pawnee, KS0.250
May 223:15 PM CDTF0Hodgeman, KS0.250
May 224:10 PM CDTF1Ellis, KS1.5100$5,000 to $50,000
May 224:14 PM CDTF1Hutchinson, TX2.0200
May 224:15 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.523
May 225:55 PM CDTF0Reno, KS0.120
May 225:55 PM CDTF0Reno, KS0.120
May 225:59 PM CDTF0Stevens, KS0.250
May 226:20 PM CDTF0Stevens, KS0.230
May 226:21 PM CDTF0Pratt, KS0.550
May 226:25 PM CDTF0Stevens, KS0.550
May 226:40 PM CDTF2Stevens, KS3.5200$50,000 to $500,000
May 226:57 PM CDTF1Seward, KS2.5100
May 227:05 PM CDTF0Harvey, KS0.120
May 227:05 PM CDTF0Sedgwick, KS0.120
May 227:18 PM CDTF1Stafford, KS1.050$5,000 to $50,000
May 227:18 PM CDTF0Wheeler, TX1.050
May 228:35 PM CDTF0Wheeler, TX0.323
May 229:11 PM CDTF0Beckham, OK0.130

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.