EF0 tornado, Bakersfield, Texas, May 19, 2015

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 19, 2015

Touchdown

4:12 PM CDT (21:12 UTC)

Lifted

4:17 PM CDT (21:17 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pecos County

Touchdown point

30.829, -102.340

Lift-off point

30.849, -102.296

Record number

1505191512-01

An upper level low was centered over the Intermountain West and upper level disturbances moved over West Texas as a result of southwest winds aloft. A dryline was present near the Texas/New Mexico border. Daytime heating combined with plentiful moisture resulted in good instability which allowed for storms to develop. Strong low level winds moved over the area after sunset allowing storms to continue into the overnight hours. There was sufficient wind speed and direction changes with height resulting in rotating severe storms which produced large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes.

A thunderstorm moved across Pecos County and produced a tornado five miles southwest of Bakersfield. The amount of time the tornado was on the ground is unknown. Since there was no damage reported with this tornado, the tornado is being rated as an EF-0.

A thunderstorm moved across Pecos County and produced a brief tornado about ten miles southwest of Bakersfield. No damage was reported so the tornado was rated as an EF-0.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:36 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:12 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 2015 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

35 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.