Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1995

F0 tornado, Ballinger To to Rowera, Texas, May 31, 1995

From Ballinger To to Rowera, this F0 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Runnels County on May 31, 1995, touching down at 5:33 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 31, 1995
Touchdown
5:33 PM CDT (22:33 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Runnels County
Touchdown point
31.750, -100.070
Record number
609

The warnings

47 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:46 UTC, 47 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:46 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningSJT
22:18 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningSJT
22:45 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningSJT

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 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 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

10.6 hours before the tornado, 202 km from the path. May 31, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1995-05-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 847 joules per kilogram, CIN -31, lifted condensation level 682 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1995-05-31The 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 144 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 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
847 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1472 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
682 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
248 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
3.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

1.4 hours after it, 202 km from the path. June 1, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1995-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 3275 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1995-06-01The 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 21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
219 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3275 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

San Angelo/Mathis (SJT), 60 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC8866170° 8 kt1011.2
22:00 UTC8868210° 13 kt211009.8
23:00 UTC8869170° 14 kt1009.8
00:00 UTC8566190° 13 kt201008.8
00:15 UTC50° 11 kt251011.2
00:25 UTC60° 5 kt1012.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

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 31, 1995

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 3110:33 AM CDTF0Lamb, TX0.220
May 311:30 PM CDTF0Gray, TX0.123
May 314:30 PM CDTF1Scurry, TX0.550$5,000 to $50,000
May 314:35 PM CDTF0Taylor, TX0.110
May 314:50 PM CDTF0Nolan, TX0.220
May 315:02 PM CDTF0Taylor, TX0.110
May 315:15 PM CDTF1Coke, TX8.050
May 316:32 PM CDTF0Tom Green, TX0.110
May 316:35 PM CDTF0Concho, TX0.110
May 317:11 PM CDTF0Concho, TX0.110
May 317:15 PM CDTF0McCulloch, TX0.110

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.