Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2017

Unrated tornado, (Dlf)Laughlin Afb De, Texas, May 10, 2017

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Val Verde County on May 10, 2017, touching down at 10:58 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
Unrated
Date
May 10, 2017
Touchdown
10:58 PM CDT (03:58 UTC)
Lifted
10:59 PM CDT (03:59 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Val Verde County
Touchdown point
29.428, -100.780
Lift-off point
29.428, -100.778
Record number
1705102158-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed over the mountains in Mexico ahead of a cold front. Some of these storms produced severe hail.

A thunderstorm produced a weak tornado north of Laughlin AFB. The tornado was observed by the weather personnel on the base, but no damage was found in the rural area of the path.

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

The warnings

23 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:35 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:56 UTC22:17 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
00:38 UTC01:14 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
03:35 UTC04:15 UTCTornado WarningEWX
04:13 UTC04:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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 air that afternoon

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.

Del Rio, TX (KDLF), 00:00Z

4.0 hours before the tornado, 9 km from the path. May 11, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2017-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1530 joules per kilogram, CIN -50, lifted condensation level 1468 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2017-05-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1530 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-50 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2195 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1468 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDLF), 12:00Z

8.0 hours after it, 9 km from the path. May 11, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2017-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 477 joules per kilogram, CIN -244, lifted condensation level 901 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2017-05-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -53 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
477 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-244 J/kg
Surface CAPE
969 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
901 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Laughlin AFB radar (KDFX), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:57 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:58 UTCHAIL 1BrackettvilleKinney, TX
03:36 UTCHAIL 11 Wsw Del RioVal Verde, TXPUBLIC REPORT OF QUARTER SIZE HAIL VIA TWITTER OBSERVED ON THE WEST SIDE OF DEL RIO.
03:37 UTCHAIL 0.53 Nw Del RioVal Verde, TX
03:58 UTCTORNADO4 N Laughlin AfbVal Verde, TXLAUGHLIN AFB WEATHER PERSONNEL REPORTED A TORNADO APPROXIMATELY 4 MILES NORTH OF THE BASE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 10, 2017

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 103:27 AM CDTEF1Armstrong, TX2.8180
May 104:01 AM CDTEF1Gray, TX2.650
May 1012:37 PM MDTEF0Colfax, NM1.750
May 102:46 PM CDTEF0Van Buren, IA2.850
May 102:54 PM CDTUnratedMotley, TX0.010
May 103:37 PM CDTUnratedCottle, TX0.010
May 103:58 PM CDTUnratedCottle, TX1.125
May 104:44 PM CDTUnratedHall, TX0.450
May 107:49 PM CDTEF0Macon, IL0.120$8,000
May 108:05 PM CDTEF0Tillman, OK0.330
May 108:31 PM CDTUnratedTillman, OK0.350
May 108:36 PM CDTUnratedCotton, OK2.0100
May 1012:34 AM CDTEF0Newton, MO1.0100$100,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.