Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1996

F0 tornado, Tyler, Texas, February 27, 1996

This F0 tornado ran 4.8 miles across Smith County on February 27, 1996, touching down at 2:15 PM CST and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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
February 27, 1996
Touchdown
2:15 PM CST (20:15 UTC)
Path length
4.8 miles (7.7 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$10,000
County
Smith County
Touchdown point
32.350, -95.300
Lift-off point
32.350, -95.300
Record number
31

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado caused minor damage along its path including breaking tree limbs and overturning an unoccupied 18 wheel truck (with an empty trailer). Gravel thrown from the roof of a middle school broke windows in 16 vehicles parked in the school parking lot. Several eye witnesses from the school.

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

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:07 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:58 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
20:07 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningSHV

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:55 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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 146 km from the path. February 27, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1996-02-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 799 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 643 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1996-02-27The 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 371 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
799 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
767 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
643 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
371 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
267 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.8
Supercell composite
7.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 146 km from the path. February 28, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1996-02-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 25 joules per kilogram, CIN -273, lifted condensation level 560 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1996-02-28The 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 66 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
25 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-273 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
560 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Tyler/Pounds Field (TYR), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC74.8465180° 13 kt1008.1-RA
20:00 UTC74.8463.86310° 18 kt331007.5RA FG
20:30 UTC300° 18 kt251011.2+TSRA SHRA
21:00 UTC56.8456320° 14 kt201010.2
22:00 UTC56.8451330° 10 kt1010.8

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

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.