Unrated tornado, Oil Center, New Mexico, November 2, 2024

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

November 2, 2024

Touchdown

4:50 PM MDT (22:50 UTC)

Lifted

5:07 PM MDT (23:07 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lea County

Touchdown point

32.450, -103.410

Lift-off point

32.470, -103.310

Record number

2411021650-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MAF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU.

• Estimated start location of large dusty bowl tornado as documented by several storm chasers.
• Estimated end location of second Oil Center tornado as reported by multiple storm chasers. Was not reported to have crossed Highway 176.
• Nearest likely radar location at time of reported brief rope tornado west of Oil Center.
• Estimated end point of tornado.

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

A deep late-season trough across the Southwestern United States resulted in an unseasonably moist and unstable airmass across the southern Great Plains. During the afternoon and evening, several severe thunderstorms, including supercells, produced large hail, damaging winds, and at least two brief, weak tornadoes over portions of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.

Several storm chasers reported a large, rapidly rotating wall cloud|with a dusty circulation underneath it. This tornado was reported to|have lasted approximately 15 minutes and traveled about 6 miles. The|tornado may have briefly lifted and touched back down at times. No|damage was reported with this tornado as it remained over an|inaccessible, open oil field south of Highway 176 in rural Lea|County near the town of Oil Center. Therefore, this tornado is rated|EF-Unknown.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:49 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:09 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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 Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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 2024 tornado in New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.