F0 tornado, Midland, Texas, June 5, 2004

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

June 5, 2004

Touchdown

5:57 PM CDT (22:57 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Midland County

Touchdown point

31.930, -102.050

Lift-off point

31.950, -102.080

Record number

1272

An active and very complicated round of severe thunderstorms affected west Texas during the late afternoon and evening of the 5th. Severe weather development was focused in two areas of the region. Convective initiation occurred first near a sub-synoptic scale outflow boundary that was situated across the southeast Permian Basin. This feature was a remnant from overnight convection to the northeast of the area. Two supercell thunderstorms developed along the boundary over rural areas of southeast Midland and northern Upton Counties. As these storms moved east, storm-scale outflow boundaries were observed in local warning radar base reflectivity and velocity data arcing away from the storms toward the west. Both of these boundaries interacted with the larger scale baroclinic boundary under a field of strongly growing convective towers over southern and central Midland County and northeast Crane County. A series of at least four landspout tornadoes were observed as these interactions occurred.The mesoscale boundary began propagating west-northwest across the basin as the supercell storms provided convective enhancement to the cool (east) side of the boundary. Meanwhile strong to severe thunderstorms began propagating east from the mountainous areas of southeast New Mexico and southwest Texas. The convectively enhanced outflow boundary interacted with the complex of storms over the Upper Trans Pecos region. Large hail and two tornadoes were observed in east-central Reeves County.

The first in a series of landspout tornadoes developed just west of State Highway 349 south of Midland.

A second landspout tornado developed just east of U.S. Highway 349 south of Midland.

A third landspout tornado was observed southeast of the city. This tornado likely crossed State Route 158.

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

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.

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 19:47 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.

Midland Intl (MAF), 13 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), 12 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:57 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 2004 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.