EF0 tornado, Maxwell, New Mexico, May 28, 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 28, 2021

Touchdown

2:01 PM MDT (20:01 UTC)

Lifted

2:04 PM MDT (20:04 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Colfax County

Touchdown point

36.480, -104.580

Lift-off point

36.480, -104.570

Record number

2105281401-02

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

• Landspout reported by social media - https://twitter.com/granttosterudwx/status/1398389507066499072

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

A backdoor cold front tracked south and west through New Mexico early on May 28, 2021, which reinforced low-level moisture across much of eastern and central portions of the state. Upslope flow aided in the early onset of afternoon thunderstorms across the higher terrain, and these thunderstorms then tracked east to southeast onto the plains. With plenty of instability and shear, these storms quickly intensified through the afternoon and evening hours. Large hail was the main hazard with numerous reports of hail ranging from 2 to 3 inches. A variety of weather hazards particularly impacted southeast New Mexico with large hail and severe winds resulting in property damage and minor street flooding in Portales and Clovis disrupting traffic. A couple tornadoes and landspouts were also reported, but did not do any damage.

A severe thunderstorm near Maxwell produced twin tornadoes. One tornado was a mesocyclonic tornado while the second tornado was a landspout. No damage was reported.

A severe thunderstorm near Maxwell produced twin tornadoes. One tornado was a mesocyclonic tornado while the second tornado was a landspout. 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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

The Cannon AFB radar (KFDX), 223 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:01 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

8 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.