F0 tornado, Goldsmith, Texas, March 22, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

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

2. F173 to 112 mph

   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.

Rating

F0

Date

March 22, 2000

Touchdown

1:42 AM CST (07:42 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Ector County

Touchdown point

31.870, -102.620

Lift-off point

31.900, -102.620

Record number

716

A series of large supercell thunderstorms developed during the late evening and early morrning hours in advance of a strong upper level low pressure system. These storms produced hail up to golfball size, damaging thunderstorm winds, some flash flooding, and one tornado.

The Wickett supercell storm occluded then spawned another strong mesocylone. What was believed to have been a weak tornado formed in western Ector County and knocked down two sets of utility poles. The tornado moved northeast through open country taking out a line of 11 utility poles about 2 miles west of FM 866, then proceeded to the northeast and knocked down 4 additional poles at the intersection of FM 866 and State Highway 302.Absolute confirmation of the tornado could not be gained due to the lack of damage in the path. Tall grasses in the path gave little clue to the winds in this weak phenomenon. The decision to classify this as a tornado was due to the extreme intensity of low level radar signatures as well as the fairly narrow damage path sustained over a three mile track.Although utility poles were knocked over, this tornado was rated only as a high F0 due to the seemingly undisturbed vegetation.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:20 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:15 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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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.

Odessa-Schlemeyer Field (Was E02) (ODO), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:41 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.

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

17 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.