Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 2020

EF0 tornado, Sofia, New Mexico, July 4, 2020

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Union County on July 4, 2020, touching down at 4:30 PM MDT and reaching 30 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
July 4, 2020
Touchdown
4:30 PM MDT (22:30 UTC)
Lifted
4:32 PM MDT (22:32 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Union County
Touchdown point
36.590, -103.850
Lift-off point
36.589, -103.850
Record number
2007041630-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Abundant moisture streaming into eastern New Mexico from the Gulf Coast and northern Mexico interacted with a weak shortwave trough approaching from the west to produce scattered showers and thunderstorms over the region on July 4, 2020. Showers and storms first developed along the central mountain chain then spread southeast into the eastern plains where very heavy rainfall, strong wind gusts, hail, and frequent lightning impacted the region. A series of slow-moving storms developed over the Pine Lodge burn scar in Lincoln County and dumped an estimated one to two inches of rain over the area. Flash flooding was observed along NM-246 between mile markers 30 and 31 with up to 12 inches of water, mud, and debris over the roadway across a 30 yard stretch.

A brief tornado touched down over rural countryside 12 miles west of Grenville.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:07 UTC23:38 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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. 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

10.5 hours before the tornado, 246 km from the path. July 4, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2020-07-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -76614, lifted condensation level 1573 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2020-07-04The 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 100 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.1939Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-76614 J/kg
Surface CAPE
41 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1573 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
71 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.5 hours after it, 246 km from the path. July 5, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2020-07-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 885 joules per kilogram, CIN -44, lifted condensation level 1899 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2020-07-05The 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 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939Sfc1 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
885 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-44 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2651 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1899 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
218 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.4
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Raton/Crews Field (RTN), 61 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:30 UTC 16 kt211021.7
20:35 UTC 11 kt1021.7
20:40 UTC 10 kt1021.7
20:45 UTC50° 11 kt171021.3
20:50 UTC50° 17 kt1021.7
20:53 UTC834950° 15 kt221021.3VCTS
20:55 UTC50° 17 kt1021.3
21:00 UTC50° 17 kt1021.3
21:05 UTC40° 14 kt1021.7
21:10 UTC50° 13 kt1021.7
21:15 UTC50° 11 kt181022
21:20 UTC40° 14 kt191021.7
21:25 UTC40° 16 kt1021.7
21:30 UTC40° 21 kt261021.7
21:35 UTC 21 kt271021.7
21:37 UTC754860° 22 kt301021.7TS
21:40 UTC 22 kt291021.7
21:45 UTC70° 20 kt241021.7
21:50 UTC 21 kt271022-RA
21:53 UTC704880° 22 kt291022VCTS -RA
21:55 UTC90° 22 kt271022-RA
22:00 UTC100° 22 kt271022-RA
22:03 UTC6651100° 24 kt321022.4-TSRA
22:05 UTC100° 20 kt1022.4+RA
22:10 UTC90° 17 kt1022.7+RA
22:15 UTC50° 8 kt1022.7+RA
22:16 UTC625340° 6 kt291022.7+TSRA
22:20 UTC280° 8 kt1023+RA
22:25 UTC 14 kt1024RA
22:27 UTC6253260° 18 kt251024.4+TSRA
22:30 UTC 17 kt1024.7+RA
22:31 UTC6153250° 13 kt251024.7+TSRA
22:35 UTC 13 kt1024.4+RA
22:38 UTC5954330° 9 kt231024.4+TSRA
22:40 UTC340° 9 kt1024RA
22:44 UTC5954340° 8 kt1024+TSRA
22:45 UTC350° 7 kt1024+RA
22:50 UTC100° 2 kt1024RA
22:51 UTC64.453.6120° 3 kt1024TSRA
22:53 UTC65520° 0 kt1024+TSRA
22:55 UTC 1024.4+RA
23:00 UTC300° 9 kt1024.4RA
23:05 UTC320° 8 kt1024.4RA
23:10 UTC350° 5 kt1024.4RA
23:15 UTC20° 4 kt1024+RA
23:20 UTC60° 5 kt1023.7-RA
23:25 UTC70° 10 kt1023.4RA
23:30 UTC70° 11 kt1023RA
23:31 UTC625780° 11 kt1023RA
23:35 UTC90° 17 kt221022.7RA
23:40 UTC80° 17 kt221022.4-RA
23:45 UTC90° 21 kt1021.3RA
23:50 UTC80° 18 kt1021.7-RA
23:53 UTC625570° 19 kt271021.3-RA
23:55 UTC70° 16 kt1021.3-RA
00:00 UTC80° 8 kt1021.3-RA
00:05 UTC100° 4 kt1022-RA
00:10 UTC10° 4 kt1022
00:15 UTC20° 8 kt1022.4
00:20 UTC10° 8 kt1022.4
00:25 UTC360° 9 kt1022.7

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

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 210 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:31 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
22:30 UTCTORNADO13 W GrenvilleUnion, NM

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 4, 2020

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 46:30 PM CDTEF0Marshall, MN0.125
July 47:02 PM CDTUnratedLee, IL0.125
July 47:35 PM CDTEF2McPherson, SD2.7150

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.