Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1996

F0 tornado, Four Way, Texas, September 17, 1996

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Moore County on September 17, 1996, touching down at 10:10 PM CDT and reaching 100 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
September 17, 1996
Touchdown
10:10 PM CDT (03:10 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Moore County
Touchdown point
35.780, -101.830
Lift-off point
35.780, -101.830
Record number
987

What the Weather Service recorded

Brief tornado touchdown as reported by sheriff's office.

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

The warnings

61 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:09 UTC, 61 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:10 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:58 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
02:09 UTC03:10 UTCTornado WarningAMA
03:04 UTC04:05 UTCTornado WarningAMA

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 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

3.2 hours before the tornado, 62 km from the path. September 18, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1996-09-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2692 joules per kilogram, CIN -22, lifted condensation level 976 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1996-09-18The 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 203 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
2692 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-22 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3250 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
976 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
203 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
297 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.6
Supercell composite
18.6
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

8.8 hours after it, 62 km from the path. September 18, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1996-09-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 515 joules per kilogram, CIN -90, lifted condensation level 959 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1996-09-18The 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 124 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
515 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90 J/kg
Surface CAPE
873 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
959 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Borger/Hutchinson (BGD), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:51 UTC7166120° 16 kt241013.9
02:51 UTC7066140° 16 kt241013.9
03:51 UTC7066140° 21 kt301012.9
04:51 UTC7065150° 20 kt251013.9

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

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:09 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

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 17, 1996

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 173:55 AM EDTF0Dare, NC0.3501
September 172:17 PM CDTF0Walton, FL0.110
September 178:00 PM CDTF0King, TX0.110
September 179:20 PM CDTF0Dickens, TX0.110
September 179:37 PM CDTF0King, TX0.110
September 1711:42 PM CDTF0Hutchinson, TX0.550
September 1712:49 AM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.550

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.