Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 1962

F1 tornado, Union County, New Mexico, May 17, 1962

This F1 tornado ran 15.3 miles across Union County on May 17, 1962, touching down at 3:30 PM GMT-7 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 17, 1962
Touchdown
3:30 PM GMT-7 (22:30 UTC)
Path length
15.3 miles (24.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Union County
Touchdown point
36.420, -103.450
Lift-off point
36.580, -103.270
Record number
157

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), 12:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 206 km from the path. May 17, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1962-05-17Temperature 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 -25303, lifted condensation level 3606 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1962-05-17The 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 141 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-25303 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3606 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
189 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.5 hours after it, 206 km from the path. May 18, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1962-05-18Temperature 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 -10692, lifted condensation level 3566 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1962-05-18The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-10692 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3566 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Clayton (CAO), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC5955140° 10 kt1011.5-TSRA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1962 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 17, 1962

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 173:22 PM GMT-5F0Cimarron, OK0.110
May 173:30 PM GMT-5F2Reeves, TX2.0673$50,000 to $500,000
May 173:30 PM GMT-5F0Reeves, TX0.517
May 172:30 PM GMT-7F1Baca, CO23.010$50 to $500
May 175:30 PM GMT-5F0Decatur, KS0.110
May 173:30 PM GMT-7F0Union, NM0.110$50 to $500
May 175:00 PM GMT-7F0Powell, MT0.110
May 177:30 PM GMT-5F1Phelps, NE0.110
May 176:00 PM GMT-7F2Harding, NM10.8101$5,000 to $50,000
May 176:35 PM GMT-7F0Sherman, KS0.110
May 176:35 PM GMT-7F0Sherman, KS0.110
May 1710:20 PM GMT-5F0Pierce, NE0.110
May 179:05 PM GMT-7F2Hamilton, KS12.6250$5,000 to $50,000
May 1712:30 AM GMT-5F1Yankton, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000

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.