Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1996

F1 tornado, Mertzon, Texas, May 29, 1996

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Irion County on May 29, 1996, touching down at 6:29 PM CDT and reaching 70 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
May 29, 1996
Touchdown
6:29 PM CDT (23:29 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
70 yards (64 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Irion County
Touchdown point
31.270, -100.820
Lift-off point
31.270, -100.820
Record number
253

The warnings

59 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:30 UTC, 59 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:35 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:01 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
22:30 UTC23:35 UTCTornado WarningSJT
23:21 UTC00:20 UTCTornado WarningSJT
23:55 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
01:03 UTC02:05 UTCTornado WarningSJT
01:07 UTC02:10 UTCTornado WarningSJT
02:01 UTC03:05 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
02:13 UTC05:15 UTCFlash Flood 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 06:15 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

11.5 hours before the tornado, 151 km from the path. May 29, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1996-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2227 joules per kilogram, CIN -120, lifted condensation level 986 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 1996-05-29The 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 116 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
2227 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-120 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
986 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.5 hours after it, 151 km from the path. May 30, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1996-05-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1926 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 1987 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 1996-05-30The 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 58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 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
1926 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3566 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1987 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
258 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
12.9
0-3 km lapse rate
8.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

San Angelo/Mathis (SJT), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC9467100° 11 kt1007.1
23:00 UTC926570° 12 kt1006.4
23:15 UTC916580° 14 kt221009.1TS
00:00 UTC916570° 14 kt241009.1TSRA
00:44 UTC7363330° 21 kt291011.5+TSRA -RA

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

The other tornadoes of May 29, 1996

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 294:15 PM EDTF1Broward, FL0.110$100,000
May 295:10 PM EDTF0Cherokee, SC0.230$3,000
May 295:40 PM EDTF1Iredell, NC5.0150$450,000
May 296:00 PM EDTF1Chester, SC1.0100$20,000
May 296:05 PM EDTF1Rowan, NC5.0150$150,000
May 295:35 PM CDTF0Irion, TX0.175
May 295:20 PM MDTF0Davis, UT0.415$100,000
May 295:30 PM MDTF1Weber, UT1.3331$600,000
May 297:44 PM EDTF0Kershaw, SC0.250
May 2910:00 PM CDTF0Brown, TX0.180

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.