Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 1991

F0 tornado, Lea County, New Mexico, June 5, 1991

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lea County on June 5, 1991, touching down at 5:00 PM MDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 5, 1991
Touchdown
5:00 PM MDT (23:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lea County
Touchdown point
32.830, -103.770
Record number
778

The warnings

56 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:04 UTC, 56 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:04 UTC23:00 UTCTornado 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:34 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 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), 12:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 177 km from the path. June 5, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1991-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2826 joules per kilogram, CIN -111, lifted condensation level 1186 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 1991-06-05The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
2826 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-111 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2832 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1186 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.0 hours after it, 177 km from the path. June 6, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1991-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 30 joules per kilogram, CIN -189, lifted condensation level 2179 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 1991-06-06The 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 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
30 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-189 J/kg
Surface CAPE
13 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2179 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hobbs/Lea Co. (HOB), 54 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC9052120° 10 kt1011.5
22:12 UTC260° 30 kt401012.5TSPL
22:20 UTC280° 35 kt1015.2TSPL
22:29 UTC260° 24 kt1016.6TSRA
23:00 UTC6759280° 10 kt1015.2TS
23:23 UTC150° 8 kt1015.9
00:00 UTC7257140° 5 kt1015.6
01:00 UTC706130° 6 kt1014.9

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1991 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 5, 1991

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 51:07 PM CDTF0Atoka, OK0.250
June 51:07 PM CDTF0Atoka, OK0.350
June 51:32 PM CDTF0Choctaw, OK4.0100
June 53:55 PM CDTF1Castro, TX2.0150
June 54:58 PM MDTF0Lea, NM0.510
June 55:07 PM MDTF0Lea, NM0.510
June 55:09 PM MDTF0Lea, NM0.210
June 55:10 PM MDTF0Lea, NM0.210
June 56:17 PM CDTF0Swisher, TX0.120
June 55:23 PM MDTF0Lea, NM0.210
June 55:35 PM MDTF0Lea, NM0.320
June 56:55 PM CDTF0Glasscock, TX0.120
June 57:08 PM CDTF0Lamb, TX0.230
June 57:33 PM CDTF0Hale, TX0.320
June 58:00 PM CDTF0Calcasieu Parish, LA0.513$5,000 to $50,000
June 58:15 PM CDTF0Scurry, TX0.430
June 58:28 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.230
June 59:30 PM CDTF0Nolan, TX0.640

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.