Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 1965

F1 tornado, Chaves County, New Mexico, June 10, 1965

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Chaves County on June 10, 1965, touching down at 8:00 PM GMT-6 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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
June 10, 1965
Touchdown
8:00 PM GMT-6 (02:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Chaves County
Touchdown point
33.300, -104.500
Record number
550

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1965 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 1965

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 101:50 PM GMT-5F2Okaloosa, FL0.110$500 to $5,000
June 102:00 PM GMT-5F0Winkler, TX0.117
June 102:30 PM GMT-5F0Swisher, TX0.117
June 102:53 PM GMT-6F0Jefferson, CO0.110
June 105:25 PM GMT-4F0Leon, FL0.110under $50
June 105:50 PM GMT-4F1Washington, ME1.0503$50,000 to $500,000
June 106:30 PM GMT-5F0Stevens, KS0.110
June 106:15 PM GMT-6F1Chaves, NM0.3173$500 to $5,000
June 1010:00 PM GMT-5F0Hale, TX0.517
June 1010:00 PM GMT-5F2Hale, TX0.510

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.