EF0 tornado, Crossroads, New Mexico, March 23, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 23, 2007

Touchdown

5:45 PM MDT (23:45 UTC)

Lifted

5:47 PM MDT (23:47 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2,000

County

Lea County

Touchdown point

33.489, -103.367

Lift-off point

33.489, -103.367

Record number

0703231745-01

Around 12:30 pm MDT on Friday, March 23, thunderstorms began to develop over the Guadalupe Mountains of Eddy County. Thunderstorms continued to rapidly develop, becoming severe over portions of Eddy County at 1:45 pm MDT. Thunderstorms also were developing over eastern portions of Culberson County during this time and these thunderstorms would eventually affect Lea County later in the afternoon.|At 3:39 pm MDT, a thunderstorm located in western portions of Lea County just northwest of the community of Halfway began to exhibit supercellular characteristics. This prompted the issuance of a Severe Thunderstorm Warning at 3:42 pm MDT for western portions of Lea county. As the supercell thunderstorm moved northeast at 30 mph, the storm continued to intensify. The presence on radar of an intensifying mesocyclone (storm rotation) and a bounded weak echo region, along with key spotter information relayed into our office through amateur radio Net Control Operations prompted an upgrade to a tornado warning. Spotters indicated a developing wall cloud over the area had become fully formed with increasing surface wind inflow. A tornado warning was issued for northern portions of Lea County at 4:28 pm MDT.

At 5:34 pm MDT, radar indicated redevelopment of a stronger mesocyclone just west of N.M. Highway 206, five miles south of Crossroads. At 5:36 pm MDT, spotters had visual indications of a rope tornado six miles south of Crossroads. This remained over range land just west of N.M. Highway 206. An EF0 rating was assigned to this tornado.

A fourth tornado was witnessed three miles southwest of Crossroads where it destroyed a 10' x 10' oil field pump house. This tornado remained over open country for the most part and was assigned an F0 rating.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:28 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:05 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 02:54 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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 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.

The Cannon AFB radar (KFDX), 129 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:43 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.