Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 1991

F0 tornado, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, May 15, 1991

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Bernalillo County on May 15, 1991, touching down at 4:15 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
May 15, 1991
Touchdown
4:15 PM MDT (22:15 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Bernalillo County
Touchdown point
35.080, -106.570
Record number
531

The warnings

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

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.

Albuquerq/Krtlnd, NM (KABQ), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 4 km from the path. May 15, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albuquerq/Krtlnd, NM at 12:00Z on 1991-05-15Temperature 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 -12159, lifted condensation level 2637 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Albuquerq/Krtlnd, NM at 12:00Z on 1991-05-15The 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 -98 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12159 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2637 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-98 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albuquerq/Krtlnd, NM (KABQ), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 4 km from the path. May 16, 1991.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albuquerq/Krtlnd, NM at 00:00Z on 1991-05-16Temperature 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 -711, lifted condensation level 2272 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Albuquerq/Krtlnd, NM at 00:00Z on 1991-05-16The 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 -31 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 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
-711 J/kg
Surface CAPE
150 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2272 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
195 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 May 15, 1991

32 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 155:00 AM CDTF0Lafayette Parish, LA0.220$50,000 to $500,000
May 154:58 PM MDTF0Wallace, KS1.020
May 156:00 PM CDTF0Finney, KS2.030
May 156:00 PM CDTF0Finney, KS7.0150
May 155:05 PM MDTF1Laramie, WY0.180$50,000 to $500,000
May 156:05 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.573
May 156:05 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.573
May 156:05 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.573
May 156:05 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.573
May 156:05 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.573
May 156:10 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.573
May 156:20 PM CDTF0Finney, KS2.567
May 156:20 PM CDTF0Finney, KS2.550
May 156:20 PM CDTF0Finney, KS2.557
May 156:20 PM CDTF0Finney, KS2.567
May 156:27 PM CDTF0Wichita, KS1.010
May 156:27 PM CDTF0Wichita, KS1.010
May 156:27 PM CDTF0Wichita, KS1.010
May 156:27 PM CDTF0Wichita, KS1.010
May 156:30 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.840
May 156:30 PM CDTF0Finney, KS1.840
May 156:30 PM CDTF0Scott, KS1.010
May 156:45 PM CDTF0Finney, KS3.557
May 156:45 PM CDTF0Finney, KS3.557
May 156:00 PM MDTF0Sherman, KS1.010
May 158:09 PM CDTF1Lane, KS1.050$5,000 to $50,000
May 158:35 PM CDTF3Harper, OK11.59003$50,000 to $500,000
May 159:17 PM CDTF3Collingsworth, TX15.0450$50,000 to $500,000
May 159:30 PM CDTF0Beckham, OK0.350
May 1511:23 PM CDTF0Dewey, OK0.330
May 1511:30 PM CDTF0Beckham, OK0.550
May 1512:16 AM CDTF0Major, OK0.330

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.