2021 tornadoes in New Mexico

16 tornadoes touched down in New Mexico in 2021, 75 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2020 2022 The whole country in 2021

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in New Mexico in 2021

May 17 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 17	11:43 AM MDT	EF0	Socorro	0.7	50
May 17	12:45 PM MDT	EF0	Valencia	0.0	50
May 17	1:08 PM MDT	EF0	Sandoval	1.7	50
May 17	4:23 PM MDT	EF0	Curry	0.3	50
May 17	4:33 PM MDT	EF0	Quay	2.7	60

May 28 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 28	2:01 PM MDT	EF0	Colfax	0.5	30
May 28	2:01 PM MDT	EF0	Colfax	0.6	60
May 28	5:36 PM MDT	EF0	Lincoln	0.5	50

May 30 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30	4:10 PM MDT	EF0	Union	0.4	50
May 30	4:44 PM MDT	EF0	Quay	0.5	50

May 31 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 31	1:00 PM MDT	EF0	Socorro	0.9	50
May 31	2:08 PM MDT	EF0	Socorro	0.9	50

June 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 2	2:31 PM MDT	EF0	Mora	1.8	50

June 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 12	5:30 PM MDT	Unrated	San Miguel	4.6	100

July 13 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 13	1:35 PM MDT	EF0	Santa Fe	0.2	50

July 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 23	2:30 PM MDT	EF0	Sandoval	0.0	30

Nearby

Every tornado in New Mexico since 1950 Warnings in force in New Mexico The live radar over New Mexico

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.