Unrated tornado, Meadow, Texas, June 1, 2016

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

June 1, 2016

Touchdown

11:20 AM CDT (16:20 UTC)

Lifted

11:21 AM CDT (16:21 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.0 miles (0.1 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Terry County

Touchdown point

33.309, -102.231

Lift-off point

33.310, -102.231

Record number

1606011020-01

Northeast of a slow moving upper low near El Paso, a broad upper trough overspread the South Plains this day. Abundant moisture and very weak wind shear led to several lines and clusters of nearly stationary showers and storms with torrential rainfall. A nearly 90-mile long axis of heavy rain fell from the southwest side of Lubbock northwest to Littlefield (Lamb County), Muleshoe (Bailey County) and Farwell (Parmer County). Rainfall measurements of 2 to 4 inches were common in these areas. A retired NWS Lubbock employee in southwest Lubbock measured 5 inches and reported knee-deep water in his backyard. In addition to washing out large expanses of farmers' newly seeded fields, flooding stranded dozens of cars in southwest Lubbock alone. Many southwest Lubbock businesses, including the South Plains Mall, closed early for the day due to impassable streets and flooded parking lots. Several hundred homes suffered significant water damage to carpets and personal property. Additionally, funnel clouds accompanied a few of these slow moving storms. One motorist photographed a short-lived tornado north of Brownfield over open land around 1020 CST. Economic losses and property damage from the flooding would likely reach several million USD.

Late this morning, a motorist traveling northeast on US Highway 62 photographed a short-lived tornado to their west over open land. Radar features indicated the possibility of a tornadic storm in the area at this time which added credibility to the photo. The time and location are estimated from radar.

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.

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 12:50 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 Lubbock radar (KLBB), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:22 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 2016 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.