Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1996

F1 tornado, Tynan, Texas, September 16, 1996

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Bee County on September 16, 1996, touching down at 6:05 PM CDT and reaching 25 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
September 16, 1996
Touchdown
6:05 PM CDT (23:05 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Bee County
Touchdown point
28.170, -97.750
Lift-off point
28.170, -97.750
Record number
764

What the Weather Service recorded

Spotter and public report of a tornado with damage to trees across the area.

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

The warnings

12 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:53 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:23 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP
22:53 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningCRP

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 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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

11.1 hours before the tornado, 63 km from the path. September 16, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1996-09-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1724 joules per kilogram, CIN -119, lifted condensation level 1110 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 1996-09-16The 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 -3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1724 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-119 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4167 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1110 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
48 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

0.9 hours after it, 63 km from the path. September 17, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1996-09-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2796 joules per kilogram, CIN -62, lifted condensation level 1058 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 1996-09-17The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2796 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-62 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3675 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1058 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 September 16, 1996

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 164:55 AM CDTF0Lee, MS1.0253$600,000
September 168:12 AM CDTF1Winston, AL2.070$40,000
September 168:24 AM CDTF0Winston, AL4.070$20,000
September 168:25 AM CDTF0Tipton, TN16.050$4,000
September 164:28 PM EDTF1Oconee, SC5.0220$200,000
September 164:40 PM EDTF2Anderson, SC6.04402$3.0 million
September 164:45 PM EDTF1Anderson, SC0.3220$1.0 million
September 164:57 PM EDTF1Anderson, SC5.0220$1.0 million
September 165:03 PM EDTF0Greenville, SC2.0220$10,000
September 166:16 PM EDTF2Sumter, SC1.5150$70,000
September 166:35 PM EDTF0Cleveland, NC0.1180$1,000
September 166:40 PM EDTF0Florence, SC0.110
September 166:45 PM EDTF0Florence, SC1.010
September 167:30 PM EDTF0Marion, SC4.010
September 168:10 PM EDTF0Robeson, NC3.010
September 169:20 PM EDTF2Sampson, NC1.4100$200,000
September 169:53 PM EDTF1Fulton, GA0.175$500,000
September 168:54 PM CDTF0Cleburne, AL2.080$40,000
September 1611:12 PM EDTF1Duplin, NC2.0100$40,000
September 1612:00 AM EDTF2Lenoir, NC1.01001$1.0 million
September 1612:05 AM EDTF1Lenoir, NC1.01001$1.0 million
September 1612:30 AM EDTF1Craven, NC0.575$20,000

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.