F0 tornado, Ft Stockton, Texas, May 10, 2002

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

May 10, 2002

Touchdown

8:49 PM CDT (01:49 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pecos County

Touchdown point

30.770, -102.730

Lift-off point

30.770, -102.730

Record number

106

Three intense supercell thunderstorms developed over northern and central Pecos County during the afternoon and evening of the 10th. The first storm tracked slowly across the northern parts of the county, devastating crops near the town of Coyanosa. The second storm followed a similar path, but resulted in less destructive hail. The third supercell to affect Pecos County this day developed northwest of Fort Stockton, and proceeded to move east across the northern parts of the city. This storm resulted in devastating hail. The storm then tracked along, and just south, of Interstate 10. A brief tornado was observed south of the interstate by a local TV meteorologist southeast of Fort Stockton. Damage from hail was common along Interstate 10 between Fort Stockton and Bakersfield. Total losses from the Pecos County storms were roughly three million dollars.Additional severe thunderstorms were observed across West Texas on the 10th. An isolated supercell moved out of southeast New Mexico...producing severe thunderstorm winds in Andrews County. Also, a severe thunderstorm in the Big Bend region resulted in severe thunderstorm wind gusts.

A brief tornado was reported by a television meteorologist.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:46 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:07 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.

Fort Stockton (FST), 24 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), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:47 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 2002 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.