F0 tornado, Lubbock to Lubbock Intl Arpt, Texas, May 29, 2006

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 29, 2006

Touchdown

5:19 PM CDT (22:19 UTC)

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

15 yards (14 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lubbock County

Touchdown point

33.670, -101.830

Lift-off point

33.670, -101.830

Record number

575

May 29 Severe Thunderstorm Event Summary...Isolated to scattered thunderstorms erupted east of a southwest-to-northwest oriented frontal boundary that was stationary over the central South Plains of west Texas during the mid afternoon hours on Memorial Day. Although the storms were initially non-severe, several outflow boundaries surged west from the convection and intersected the frontal boundary over Lubbock and Lynn Counties. As instability increased during the late afternoon hours, strongly towering cumulus clouds stretched pre-existing spin in the low levels of the atmosphere near the boundary interactions and resulted in at least three non-supercellular tornadoes. One tornado was highly-visible in southeastern Lubbock. The tornadoes were weak (F0), and no damage was reported by local authorities.The thunderstorms continued to intensify over the eastern South Plains during the late afternoon and early evening hours. Several storms eventually became severe with large hail up to the size of quarters and wind gusts up to 64 MPH.

A highly-visible landspout tornado developed as an outflow boundary (which originated from non-severe storms over Crosby County) intersected a southwest-to-northeast oriented stationary front beneath towering cumulus clouds southeast of Lubbock. The tornado moved north into the southeastern parts of the city, and was observed by many people reveling the Memorial Day Holiday outdoors in and around Lubbock. A local television network captured high-quality video footage of the tornado, and it was observed in real-time by the National Weather Service meteorologists on-duty by using the office security camera. The tornado was very weak, and no damage was found along its path in the southeastern portions of the city.

A second landspout tornado developed along the same boundary intersection as it progressed northwestward across the city. This tornado was observed by storm spotters with the city of Lubbock and a Federal Aviation Administration contract weather observer as it developed near Interstate 27 just west of Lubbock International Airport. No damage was reported as the short-lived tornado moved northwestward over open farm land.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:58 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 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 21:21 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.

Lubbock International Airport (LBB), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 2 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.