Unrated tornado, Grady to Broadview, New Mexico, May 24, 2023

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

May 24, 2023

Touchdown

7:00 PM MDT (01:00 UTC)

Lifted

7:05 PM MDT (01:05 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.7 miles (2.8 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Curry County

Touchdown point

34.840, -103.270

Lift-off point

34.821, -103.251

Record number

2305241900-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABQ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 62 mph.

• Storm chaser spotted brief tornado NW of Grady - https://twitter.com/WxFanaticCC/status/1661534848740208640
• Storm chaser report tornado 3 miles ENE of Grady. Tornado tracked SSE towards hwy 209 but no damage reported between Grady and Broadview. https://twitter.com/hunterhurleywx/status/1661537784929157121 https://twitter.com/vaughanweather/status/1661609760121143297
• End point of tornado reported by storm chasers at 700PM MDT.

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

Several consecutive days of significant severe weather impacted eastern New Mexico from May 24-26, 2023. Showers and thunderstorms developed along the dryline and east slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on May 23rd. Storms tracked east and southeast across the eastern plains of New Mexico. Extensive severe weather was reported when these storms encountered greater moisture and lift closer to the Texas border. Hail up to 3.5 inches in diameter, thunderstorm wind gusts of 80 to 90 mph, and three tornados were reported in an area stretching from Union County to Roosevelt County. The largest hail stones and strongest wind gusts focused throughout Curry County during the evening hours. Hail and wind damage was reported in Tucumcari, Grady, and Clovis. Three separate tornadoes were reported in northern Curry County. Thunderstorms also dropped very heavy rainfall of 2 to 4 inches of rain across portions of Quay, De Baca, Curry, and Roosevelt Counties. Urban flooding occurred in Clovis, NM, causing some roads to be closed, and some cars to be stranded. Severe weather continued through the night and into May 25th with numerous reports of large hail, strong winds, and flash flooding. Quay County was particularly hard hit with baseball size hail and torrential rainfall amounts in excess of 5 inches. Significant hail damage was reported across Tucumcari with widespread flooding across the county. Severe wind gusts of 70 to 80 mph were common with these storms with damage reported. Strong to severe storms continued well into the night once again on the 25th with more heavy rainfall around the Caprock. The focus for severe weather shifted farther west on May 26th with large hail and heavy rainfall reported around Torrance County. A tornado and baseball size hail was also reported with a supercell near Encino. This activity spread eastward through the day with large hail, damaging wind gusts, and more torrential rainfall around the Caprock well into the night of May 26th. Three-day rainfall amounts exceeded 6 inches in many parts of Curry and Quay counties.

A storm chaser reported a brief tornado near the Quay and Curry County line. No damage was reported.

Multiple reports from storm chasers of a tornado in the area between Grady and Broadview just north of State Highway 209. This tornado only lasted less than two miles before lifting. No damage was reported in this extremely rural area of east-central NM.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS ABQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:56 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:25 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:28 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:45 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.

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 2023 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.