Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1997

F0 tornado, Ozona, Texas, May 19, 1997

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Crockett County on May 19, 1997, touching down at 4:40 PM CDT and reaching 13 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
May 19, 1997
Touchdown
4:40 PM CDT (21:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
13 yards (12 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Crockett County
Touchdown point
30.530, -101.120
Lift-off point
30.530, -101.120
Record number
856

The warnings

26 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:14 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:04 UTC22:05 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
21:14 UTC22:15 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:32 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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z

9.7 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. May 19, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 1997-05-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2184 joules per kilogram, CIN -175, lifted condensation level 762 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 1997-05-19The 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 120 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2184 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-175 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2116 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
762 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

2.3 hours after it, 132 km from the path. May 20, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 1997-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3137 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 1330 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 1997-05-20The 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 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.1939Sfc1 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
3137 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3410 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1330 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

San Angelo/Mathis (SJT), 109 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:56 UTC8564250° 7 kt1011.2
20:56 UTC7463360° 18 kt1012.2
21:10 UTC71.662.6360° 15 kt1012.5
21:56 UTC686110° 16 kt1012.9
22:56 UTC665920° 15 kt1013.2

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

The radar

The San Angelo radar (KSJT), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:41 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 1997 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 19, 1997

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 193:00 PM CDTF1Callahan, TX0.110$50,000
May 194:15 PM CDTF1Brown, TX1.050
May 196:45 PM EDTF1Clinton, PA5.050

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.