EF0 tornado, Domingo to Pena Blanca, New Mexico, May 17, 2021

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 17, 2021

Touchdown

1:08 PM MDT (19:08 UTC)

Lifted

1:16 PM MDT (19:16 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

1.7 miles (2.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Sandoval County

Touchdown point

35.520, -106.320

Lift-off point

35.539, -106.340

Record number

2105171308-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABQ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.

• LANDSPOUT - https://twitter.com/EvanBuechley/status/1394371932661878784 and https://twitter.com/EddieGarciaKOB/status/1394387606977138696 and close up https://twitter.com/granttosterudwx/status/1394383007394324482

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

An active stretch of severe weather across eastern New Mexico continued on May 17, 2021 with a significant severe weather outbreak that included multiple tornadoes. As a potent low pressure system approached the state, instability and shear increased across the area, providing a favorable environment for severe thunderstorms. Convective initiation started by late Monday morning over the high terrain of New Mexico. Steering flow generally moved the storms in a northeasterly direction where they intensified over the plains. Several reports of hail and severe winds were received as well as multiple tornado reports. Two supercell tornadoes occurred across eastern New Mexico, but no damage occurred. The environment was even favorable for tornadoes in central New Mexico where three landspout tornadoes were confirmed.

A member of the public reported a landspout tornado from a thunderstorm near Kewa Pueblo. The landspout developed on the southwest side of the storm and tracked northwest for approximately eight minutes. No damage was reported.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:38 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.

Santa Fe Co. Municipal (SAF), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Albuquerque radar (KABX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:08 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 2021 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

16 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.