Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1997

F0 tornado, Weatherford to Springtown, Texas, February 20, 1997

From Weatherford to Springtown, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Parker County on February 20, 1997, touching down at 11:31 AM CST and reaching 20 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
February 20, 1997
Touchdown
11:31 AM CST (17:31 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Parker County
Touchdown point
32.770, -97.800
Lift-off point
32.770, -97.800
Record number
48

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief tornado touchdown was reported.

Barns were damaged and trees were blown down by a brief tornado.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:52 UTC06:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
05:35 UTC12:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
12:00 UTC16:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
15:55 UTC19:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
17:33 UTC18:15 UTCTornado WarningFWD
20:26 UTC00:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
00:32 UTC05:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD
00:34 UTC05:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD

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 05:46 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

5.5 hours before the tornado, 48 km from the path. February 20, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 1997-02-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 372 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 546 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 1997-02-20The 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 197 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
372 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
145 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
546 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
245 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

6.5 hours after it, 48 km from the path. February 21, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 1997-02-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -60421, lifted condensation level 1442 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 1997-02-21The 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 -198 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-60421 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1442 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-198 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-199 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mineral Wells Municipal (MWL), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:39 UTC62.662.6150° 9 kt1005.8
15:55 UTC64.462.6150° 10 kt1005.8RA BR
16:22 UTC5957.2180° 8 kt1006.1
16:30 UTC5957.2190° 9 kt1006.1
16:56 UTC57.257.2130° 10 kt1005.1-TSRA BR
17:59 UTC5957.2160° 7 kt1004.4-RA
18:40 UTC5957.2160° 8 kt1003.7
18:55 UTC60.857.2160° 7 kt1003.7-RA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 20, 1997

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 203:00 AM CSTF1Schleicher, TX10.050$800,000
February 2011:38 AM CSTF0Parker, TX0.120$10,000
February 2012:00 PM CSTF0Tarrant, TX1.033
February 205:11 PM CSTF0Cass, TX8.050
February 207:50 PM CSTF0LeFlore, OK0.130
February 207:59 PM CSTF1Logan, AR5.010013$250,000

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.