Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2000

F1 tornado, Lamesa, Texas, March 2, 2000

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Dawson County on March 2, 2000, touching down at 2:07 AM CST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
March 2, 2000
Touchdown
2:07 AM CST (08:07 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Dawson County
Touchdown point
32.630, -102.070
Lift-off point
32.730, -102.080
Record number
94

What the Weather Service recorded

An approaching upper level storm system helped the development on nocturnal thunderstorms.

Tornado formed quickly in a small supercell that moved into Dawson County from Gaines County. Video indicated a condensation funnel to the ground. The tornado passed through open farm land causing no damage.

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

The warnings

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:51 UTC08:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
08:13 UTC08:45 UTCTornado WarningMAF

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 air that afternoon

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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

8.1 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. March 2, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-03-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 784 joules per kilogram, CIN -104, lifted condensation level 1717 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2000-03-02The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
784 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-104 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1108 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1717 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
112 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
8.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Midland Intl (MAF), 82 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
06:55 UTC60.859130° 17 kt251013.2+TSRA GR
07:03 UTC60.857.2120° 16 kt1012.5+TSRA SHRA
07:56 UTC6259160° 14 kt1012.2TS
08:56 UTC6459190° 14 kt211011.2
09:56 UTC6359200° 17 kt231010.5

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

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:05 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.