Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 2002

F0 tornado, Melrose, New Mexico, June 16, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Curry County on June 16, 2002, touching down at 9:00 PM MDT and reaching 50 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 16, 2002
Touchdown
9:00 PM MDT (03:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Curry County
Touchdown point
34.430, -103.530
Lift-off point
34.430, -103.530
Record number
165

What the Weather Service recorded

Several strong thunderstorms combined over northwest Curry County and swept southward over western sections of the county with strong winds and at least one small tornado. About 70 power and utility poles were blown over east of Melrose.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

21 minutes of warning. NWS ABQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:39 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:18 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABQ
02:39 UTC03:45 UTCTornado WarningABQ

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 00:53 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.

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

3.0 hours before the tornado, 189 km from the path. June 17, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 164 joules per kilogram, CIN -189, lifted condensation level 1847 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2002-06-17The 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 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
164 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-189 J/kg
Surface CAPE
294 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1847 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
267 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 189 km from the path. June 17, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 401 joules per kilogram, CIN -353, lifted condensation level 917 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2002-06-17The 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 142 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
401 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-353 J/kg
Surface CAPE
492 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
917 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
142 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cannon Afb/Clovis (CVS), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:55 UTC82.450120° 12 kt1017.6
02:34 UTC80.651.8100° 15 kt1018.3TS
02:55 UTC7755.4100° 15 kt211020.3TS
03:10 UTC75.25940° 15 kt1022.4-TSRA BLDU
03:55 UTC6866.2120° 19 kt351017.9
04:55 UTC6866.2170° 13 kt1018.6

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 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 16, 2002

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1612:50 PM EDTF0Montgomery, NY3.275$70,000
June 163:00 PM EDTF1Dutchess, NY1.0125$20,000
June 163:10 PM EDTF0Northwest Hills Planning Region, CT0.225$10,000

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.