F0 tornado, Bluegrove to Deer Creek, Texas, May 8, 1997

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 8, 1997

Touchdown

8:55 PM CDT (01:55 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

23 yards (21 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

33.570, -98.280

Lift-off point

33.570, -98.280

Record number

1029

Summary of events of May 8, 1997:Severe thunderstorms moved repeatedly over western parts of north Texas during the late afternoon and through the evening of the 8th. During the daylight hours, the storms produced numerous reports of large hail and strong and damaging winds. Two tornadoes were also reported. By the end of the evening, a widespread flash-flood event had evolved, affecting most or all of 5 counties in the area. The first tornado was reported west of Bluegrove (on the south side of Lake Arrowhead) in Clay County, and the second tornado, probably a gustnado, occurred south of Deer Creek (also in Clay County). Minor damage was reported with each tornado and both were rated F0. The largest hail also fell near Lake Arrowhead, where baseball-sized hail fell for about 10 minutes. The strongest measured wind speeds reached 76 mph at the Wichita Falls Municipal Airport in Wichita County. Widespread and severe wind damage occurred in Harrold in Wilbarger County and in Iowa Park in Wichita County. Other more minor damage was reported east of Red Springs in Baylor County, in Oklaunion in Wilbarger County, in Archer City in Archer County, and south of Deer Creek in Clay County.Most of Clay and Archer Counties were affected by flash flooding. Portions of Wichita Falls in Wichita County also suffered from major flash flooding, including flooding of homes. More isolated incidents of flash flooding occurred near Benjamin in Knox County and near Seymour in Baylor County. See preceding individual Storm Data entries for further details and additional reports.

A citizen reported a brief tornado on the FM 172 bridge south of Lake Arrowhead. One picnic shelter in a park was destroyed.

A small tornado, probably a gustnado, blew part of the roof off a barn.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS OUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:41 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 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 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.

Wichita Falls/Shep (SPS), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.