EF0 tornado, Dimmitt, Texas, May 25, 2010

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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

EF0

Date

May 25, 2010

Touchdown

8:14 PM CDT (01:14 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Castro County

Touchdown point

34.581, -102.283

Lift-off point

34.581, -102.283

Record number

1005251914-01

Isolated supercells developed in eastern New Mexico along a dryline during the middle afternoon hours of the 25th. The supercells intensified as they moved into the southwestern Texas Panhandle and western South Plains in association with an upper level shortwave trough translating over New Mexico. Very large hail was reported with the initial supercells in the Panhandle, along with reports of funnel clouds. By early in the evening, much of the convection had dissipated, but a single supercell evolved and tracked across Parmer and Castro Counties. The supercell morphed into a classic tornadic supercell before it eventually dissipated in northeastern Castro County. Severe hail was reported with the storm and several brief and weak tornadoes were observed near Dimmitt.||Several thunderstorms additionally developed across the western South Plains during the early morning hours of the 26th. However, only small hail was reported with this cluster of thunderstorms.

Skywarn storm spotters and numerous storm chasers photographed a tornado just west of Dimmitt shortly after 18:50 CST. The tornado was brief and remained over open fields. The tornado appeared as a slender condensation tube that stretched to the ground. No damage was reported.

Storm spotters observed the first of two brief dusty tornadoes that developed under a deeply occluded bowl-shaped lowering northeast of Dimmitt at 19:11 CST. These spin-ups occurred over open range land and no damages were reported.

Storm spotters observed the second of two brief dusty tornadoes that developed under a deeply occluded bowl-shaped lowering northeast of Dimmitt at 19:14 CST. These spin-ups occurred over open range land and no damages were reported.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:51 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 03:00 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 00:58 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.

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:14 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 2010 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

29 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.