EF0 tornado, Cochiti Pueblo to Frijoles, New Mexico, May 21, 2018

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 21, 2018

Touchdown

3:35 PM MDT (21:35 UTC)

Lifted

3:38 PM MDT (21:38 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.8 miles (6.2 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Sandoval County

Touchdown point

35.690, -106.300

Lift-off point

35.740, -106.270

Record number

1805211535-01

A deep fetch of moisture surged north and west into New Mexico on May 21, 2018 ahead of an upper level low pressure system approaching from Arizona. The combination of strong afternoon heating and moist instability allowed showers and thunderstorms to develop along the Continental Divide during the mid to late morning hours of the 21st. Hail, high winds, and funnel clouds were reported along the Continental Divide before spreading northeastward into the Rio Grande Valley during the early afternoon. A cluster of thunderstorms that developed just southwest of the Albuquerque Metro Area around 3 pm dumped copious amounts of hail and torrential rainfall across the city. Some parts of Albuquerque reported up to one inch of rain in less than 20 minutes. One woman was killed and five others injured when they were swept away in the urban drainage system designed to carry flood waters. These storms shifted east into the high plains of eastern New Mexico through the late afternoon and evening hours with more widespread severe weather. The Raton area also saw copious amounts of hail and heavy rainfall. Lincoln County was particularly hard hit with large hail up to the size of golf balls. Hail accumulated to at least one foot east of Alto as several severe storms moved over the same area. A funnel cloud was also spotted to the northeast of Ruidoso Downs. Heavy rainfall and small hail spread eastward into the plains through the overnight hours where many parts of eastern New Mexico picked up between one and two inches of rainfall.

An observer spotted a funnel cloud near Bandelier National Monument that briefly made contact with the ground as noted by surface dust swirls.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:00 UTC and running to 23:49 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 Slight 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.

Los Alamos (LAM), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Albuquerque radar (KABX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:34 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.

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

4 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.