F2 tornado, Lake J B Thomas, Texas, June 5, 2005

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 mph

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

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

June 5, 2005

Touchdown

7:08 PM CDT (00:08 UTC)

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

1,300 yards (1189 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

County

Borden County

Touchdown point

32.570, -101.300

Lift-off point

32.500, -101.320

Record number

852

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes affected parts of west Texas during the afternoon and evening of the 5th. Thunderstorms developed along a stationary frontal boundary over the western low rolling plains and the northeastern Permian Basin during the late afternoon. These storms evolved into supercells, and one storm produced a series of tornadoes across southern Borden and northern Howard Counties. By mid evening, a small cluster of organized severe storms evolved and produced more widespread hail, damaging winds, and heavy rainfall. Damages to agricultural interests across the region were significant, and accounted for a majority of the estimated $2.2 million worth of losses reported.

A significant tornado developed in southern Borden County shortly after 18:00 CST. This tornado initially formed just north of Farm to Market Road 1785 three miles west of that highway's intersection with Farm to Market Road 1205. The tornado then slowly moved southwest, and resulted in a wide swath of damage to mesquite trees, road signs, fences, and utility poles as it crossed Farm to Market Road 1785.The tornado's damaging ground circulation briefly dissipated south of Farm to Market Road 1785 in south-central Borden County. Video provided by the public and storm spotters indicated that this phase of the tornado's life cycle was characterized by a condensation funnel that reached half way to the ground with no debris visible near the ground. National Weather Service meteorologists that conducted a damage survey of the tornado's track initially concluded that the broken damage path was likely the result of two separate tornadoes. Photographic evidence, however, supports that the funnel aloft remained well-defined and that the tornado reformed about one mile north of the Borden and Howard County line. The tornado crossed a county road near the Howard County line, and left a three-quarter mile wide swath of damage to mesquite trees and fences. Large drifts of wind blown mud accumulated several feet high along barbed-wire fences on the north side of the tornadoes circulation. A tin shed also was severely damaged. The tornado then moved over plowed fields as it crossed into north-central Howard County.Damage in the Borden County segment of the tornado's path would suggest a weak category rating. This may be largely due to a lack of man made structures that were affected. More significant (F2) damage was observed along the Howard County segment of the damage path. The total path length over Borden and Howard Counties was nine miles.

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

37 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:31 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:28 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 22:15 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.

Snyder (SNK), 38 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), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:06 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 2005 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.