EF0 tornado, Contreras, New Mexico, May 31, 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 31, 2021

Touchdown

2:08 PM MDT (20:08 UTC)

Lifted

2:13 PM MDT (20:13 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Socorro County

Touchdown point

34.293, -106.630

Lift-off point

34.304, -106.622

Record number

2105311408-01

A stalled low pressure system remained to the southwest of New Mexico while an anomalously moist air mass also stayed in place on May 31, 2021. With sufficient instability and shear, showers and thunderstorms developed early in the day thanks to an additional upper-level disturbance. The heavy rain that fell over south central and southeast New Mexico the previous day provided a saturated ground that was ripe for more flash flooding. Early morning storms over Chaves County produced heavy rainfall of an additional three to five inches that resulted in flash flooding from Roswell southward to Lake Arthur. The major flash flooding resulted in multiple feet of water along U.S. Highway 285 as well as low water crossings and arroyos that were breached. Heavy rain also fell in the Albuquerque area with several inches of water being reported on roadways on the west side of the metro which resulted in several stalled cars as well as flooded homes and garages.

A spotter observed a brief landspout near Veguita. No damage was recorded.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

16 minutes of warning. NWS ABQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:52 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:16 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:17 UTC and running to 21:34 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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 Albuquerque radar (KABX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:07 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

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.