EF0 tornado, Correo, New Mexico, September 30, 2017

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

September 30, 2017

Touchdown

1:55 PM MST (20:55 UTC)

Lifted

1:57 PM MST (20:57 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.5 miles (3.9 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cibola County

Touchdown point

34.961, -107.187

Lift-off point

34.963, -107.144

Record number

1709301455-01

The potent upper low pressure system responsible for severe thunderstorms and flooding over eastern New Mexico between the 22nd and 25th began lifting slowly northeast into the central Rockies on the 26th and 27th. Daily rounds of showers and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall, hail, and strong winds began spreading westward to include much of central and western New Mexico through this period. This additional heavy rainfall set the stage for a more widespread flooding event through the end of September. Widespread three day rainfall reports averaged between two and five inches within central New Mexico. Several stations reported record daily rainfall amounts and placed September 2017 into the top 5 wettest Septembers on record. A potent storm that moved across Rio Rancho late on the 28th forced water into four homes along Arlene Road. A cluster of thunderstorms with torrential rainfall moved across western New Mexico during the early afternoon hours on the 29th and produced flash flooding around Farmington and Acoma Pueblo. These storms then shifted eastward and produced severe hail and flash flooding along much of the Interstate 25 corridor between Los Lunas, Belen, and Bernardo. Interstate 25 was closed for several hours as water flooded over the highway. Powerful storms developed again on the 30th and produced more flash flooding, severe hail, high winds, and even a tornado west of Albuquerque.

A tornado touched down briefly along Interstate 40 near state highway 6. No damage was reported. The large wall cloud and associated funnel was observed from the NWS office in Albuquerque.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS ABQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:54 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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 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.

Albuquerque/Double Eagle Ii Apt (AEG), 39 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Albuquerque radar (KABX), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:56 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 2017 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

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.