SPC Stats
Path length: 10.6 miles
Width: 100 yards
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 0
Rating: F5
County: McLennan, Bosque
This F5 tornado traveled 10 miles through parts of McLennan and Bosque Counties in Texas. It formed 5 miles south of Valley Mills and moved due north. The max width was 100 yards. There were no injuries or fatalities reported with this event. Two barns were demolished with only a small piece of tin remaining in the area.
Per Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes, “The F5 rating was applied by wind engineers and is based on reliable reports that one pickup truck was carried, in the air, for a half mile. Another one was carried for 200 yards.”
I did not find much information on this tornado in newspaper articles. If anyone has information on this event, please let us know! Contact Us
Tornado Path
Click Map To Enlarge
SPC coordinates: Start: 31.63 / -97.48 End: 31.73 / -97.35
Note: Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.
Newspaper Clippings
Discrepancies:
We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the May 1973 Storm Data Publication and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes and found the following differences:
Path Length:
- SPC/NCDC has the length at 10.6 miles.
- Grazulis and Storm Data list a 10 mile path.
Counties:
- NCDC doesn’t list Bosque County. They have all stats in McLennan County.
- Remaining sources list both counties.
Sources:
May 1973 Storm Data Publication
Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 1139.
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2 Comments
SpookiMars · April 23, 2026 at 10:51 am
Do you know the wind speeds, duration, or damage costs? If you do please reply ^^
Jen Narramore · April 23, 2026 at 4:54 pm
Unfortunately, we do not know much about this tornado. This is an event that has a tremendous amount of data missing and a bigger deep dive needs to be done. The Storm Data Entry states the damage costs ranged from $50,000 to $500,000.