Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 2018

EF0 tornado, Mt Dora, New Mexico, June 22, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Union County on June 22, 2018, touching down at 4:53 PM MDT and reaching 40 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 22, 2018
Touchdown
4:53 PM MDT (22:53 UTC)
Lifted
4:56 PM MDT (22:56 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Union County
Touchdown point
36.657, -103.410
Lift-off point
36.655, -103.400
Record number
1806221653-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A back door frontal boundary across northeastern New Mexico and a dryline draped over the far eastern plains set the stage for strong to severe thunderstorms across eastern New Mexico on the 22nd. Very hot and unstable conditions with abundant shear under northwest flow aloft allowed several storms to produce large hail, high winds, and even a tornado. Golf ball size hail was reported near Folsom. This same storm went on to produce a tornado northwest of Clayton. More storms around Curry County produced high winds and damage to power lines around Clovis.

A brief tornado was reported along Campbell Road northwest of Clayton. No damage occurred.

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

The warnings

26 minutes of warning. NWS ABQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:27 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:31 UTC and running to 23:23 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:31 UTC23:23 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchABQ
22:22 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABQ
22:27 UTC23:00 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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

10.9 hours before the tornado, 221 km from the path. June 22, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2018-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 762 joules per kilogram, CIN -198, lifted condensation level 1293 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2018-06-22The 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 312 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
762 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-198 J/kg
Surface CAPE
396 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1293 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
312 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
409 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.1 hours after it, 221 km from the path. June 23, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2018-06-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1014 joules per kilogram, CIN -74, lifted condensation level 2931 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2018-06-23The 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 144 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
1014 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1072 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2931 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
298 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.9
0-3 km lapse rate
8.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 212 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:55 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:22 UTCHAIL 1.7511 Ene FolsomUnion, NM
22:53 UTCTORNADO10 Nne Mount DoraUnion, NM

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 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 22, 2018

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 226:51 PM EDTEF0Van Wert, OH1.1180
June 226:25 PM CDTEF1Jackson, AL1.7250
June 226:46 PM CDTEF2Winston, AL7.02603
June 228:06 PM EDTEF0Walker, GA1.3150$10,000
June 227:17 PM CDTEF0Beaver, OK0.110
June 2210:21 PM CDTEF0Wheeler, TX0.550

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.