Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 1989

F1 tornado, Lea County, New Mexico, May 11, 1989

This F1 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Lea County on May 11, 1989, touching down at 9:06 PM MDT and reaching 23 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
May 11, 1989
Touchdown
9:06 PM MDT (03:06 UTC)
Path length
5.0 miles (8.0 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Lea County
Touchdown point
32.120, -103.170
Lift-off point
32.120, -103.070
Record number
216

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:37 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF

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 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

3.1 hours before the tornado, 89 km from the path. May 12, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1239 joules per kilogram, CIN -76, lifted condensation level 819 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1989-05-12The 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 47 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
1239 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-76 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1235 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
819 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

8.9 hours after it, 89 km from the path. May 12, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1989-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1132 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 612 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1989-05-12The 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 188 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1132 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1455 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
612 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
188 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
227 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.3
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1989 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 11, 1989

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 115:12 PM CDTF1Pecos, TX1.040
May 115:24 PM CDTF1Pecos, TX1.560
May 114:55 PM MDTF1Eddy, NM10.050
May 115:45 PM MDTF0Davis, UT0.210under $50
May 117:22 PM CDTF0Midland, TX0.540
May 119:02 PM MDTF0Custer, MT0.210$50,000 to $500,000

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.