Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 2014
EF0 tornado, Clapham, New Mexico, June 7, 2014
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Union County on June 7, 2014, touching down at 8:33 AM MDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- June 7, 2014
- Touchdown
- 8:33 AM MDT (14:33 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:34 AM MDT (14:34 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Union County
- Touchdown point
- 36.250, -103.280
- Lift-off point
- 36.250, -103.280
- Record number
- 1406070833-01
What the Weather Service recorded
This was the second day in a mutli-day significant severe weather outbreak across eastern New Mexico. A back door cold front moved into the northeast and east central portions of the state throughout the morning then nudged up against the central mountain chain by the afternoon hours. Deep moisture and instability aided in the development of supercell thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours along the east slopes of the central mountain chain that moved into the eastern plains. Large, damaging hail, strong winds, heavy downpours, and tornadoes were reported. Hail ranging from 2 to 4 inches in diameter caused significant damage to windows and vehicles as well as livestock and homes around Corona and Clovis. A tornado was also reported in Corona with only damage to open rangeland. Another thunderstorm that moved through Ranchvale and Clovis produced widespread wind damage.
Spotter reported funnel cloud briefly touched ground for about 1 minute then retreated quickly back into storm 11 miles northwest of Sedan.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:43 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | ABQ |
| 22:01 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 22:38 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABQ |
| 23:11 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | ABQ |
| 23:12 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABQ |
| 23:16 UTC | 23:55 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 23:22 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 23:27 UTC | 23:54 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 23:35 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABQ |
| 00:00 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABQ |
| 00:53 UTC | 01:47 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 01:11 UTC | 01:29 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 13:57 UTC | 14:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 22:15 UTC | 06:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | ABQ |
| 22:51 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 23:13 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | ABQ |
| 00:25 UTC | 00:50 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
| 01:06 UTC | 01:36 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABQ |
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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:44 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), 12:00Z
2.6 hours before the tornado, 182 km from the path. June 7, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 118 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -245 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 246 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1654 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 2 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 22 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -110 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z
9.4 hours after it, 182 km from the path. June 8, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 11 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -422 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1194 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1959 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 40 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 323 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.9 K/km
The radar
The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 181 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:33 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:33 UTC | TORNADO | 11 Nw Sedan | Union, NM | TORNADO BRIEFLY ON GROUND. QUICKLY RETREATED BACK INTO CLOUD. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 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 7, 2014
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 7 | 2:35 PM CDT | EF0 | Gasconade, MO | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| June 7 | 2:48 PM CDT | EF1 | New Madrid, KY to MO, TN | 18.2 | 200 | $270,000 | ||
| June 7 | 3:56 PM CDT | EF0 | Saint Charles, MO | 2.7 | 20 | |||
| June 7 | 4:14 PM CDT | EF0 | Saint Louis, MO | 4.2 | 40 | |||
| June 7 | 5:19 PM CDT | EF0 | Monroe, IL | 0.3 | 40 | |||
| June 7 | 5:43 PM CDT | EF0 | Monroe, IL | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| June 7 | 4:58 PM MDT | EF0 | Lincoln, NM | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| June 7 | 5:14 PM MDT | EF0 | Lincoln, NM | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 7 | 7:25 PM MDT | EF0 | Chaves, NM | 3.7 | 50 | |||
| June 7 | 1:59 AM EDT | EF0 | Troup, GA | 1.8 | 280 | $150,000 |
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.