EF0 tornado, Roswell, New Mexico, May 5, 2015

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

May 5, 2015

Touchdown

12:55 PM MDT (18:55 UTC)

Lifted

12:56 PM MDT (18:56 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

15 yards (14 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Chaves County

Touchdown point

33.371, -104.571

Lift-off point

33.373, -104.571

Record number

1505051255-01

An upper level low pressure system moved out of central Arizona and into northern Colorado during the day on the 5th ushering colder air over New Mexico. Residual moisture and a weak dryline along the eastern plains resulted in strong to severe thunderstorms across the southeast and far eastern plains. These storms produced strong winds, pea to penny size hail, and brief periods of heavy rain. The combination of weak shear and cold air aloft caused cold-air funnel clouds to form in association with some of the stronger storms, notably near Roswell. It was in Roswell that reports indicated multiple funnel clouds developed over different parts of the city. One funnel cloud briefly touched down on the southwest side of the city, damaging two outbuildings during it's short-lived life as a tornado. No injuries or fatalities were reported during this event.

Trained spotters and the public reported multiple cold-air funnels developing over the Roswell area. Reports indicated that one cold air funnel cloud briefly made contact with the ground and damaged the roof and walls of two outbuildings. No injuries or fatalities were reported with this tornado.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:11 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 Holloman AFB radar (KHDX), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:57 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 2015 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.