F0 tornado, Lowake, Texas, May 31, 1995

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 31, 1995

Touchdown

7:11 PM CDT (00:11 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Concho County

Touchdown point

31.550, -100.080

Record number

612

Severe storms produced hail in a few locations on the South Plains and minor flash flooding on the Edwards Plateau on the 30th. However, severe storms pounded many areas of West Texas on the 31st. A brief tornado was reported by spotters in Lamb County. A National Weather Service coop observer reported vehicle damage due to softball-size hail in Garza County. Very large hail also fell at Dickens, but caused only minor damage. Strong winds knocked down power poles east of Snyder. A tornado near Hermleigh damaged three homes, a barn, and a storage shed. Strong winds also uprooted trees, damaged roofs, and broke windows around 1545 CST in Roscoe. Nearby, Sweetwater was the hardest hit by the storm. Hail and high winds caused over $1,250,000 in damages to roofs, vehicles, buildings, windows, high-voltage towers, billboards, and trees. One man was slightly injured when winds rolled his tractor-semitrailer on Interstate 20 at Sweetwater. At 1615 CST, a tornado moved through open fields in Coke County, and another moved south through Runnels County after 1630 CST. Two weak, brief tornadoes were reported by spotters and sheriff's offices north of San Angelo and in northeast Concho County.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:03 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

11 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.