Unrated tornado, Boys Ranch, Texas, May 17, 2021

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

May 17, 2021

Touchdown

6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)

Lifted

6:39 PM CDT (23:39 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Oldham County

Touchdown point

35.531, -102.582

Lift-off point

35.543, -102.579

Record number

2105171735-01

A slow moving upper level storm system contributed to development of severe storms for a third consecutive day as it moved east to the Four Corners region by May 17th. With the system drawing nearer, wind shear and instability increased from what occurred with the previous days events and so did storm organization and strength. A line of thunderstorms that developed near a surface trough in New Mexico moved into the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles in the late afternoon and evening hours. Several storms produced severe hail and wind especially across the southern Texas Panhandle. A few very powerful storms produced hail in excess of 2 inches in diameter and there was also a breif, weak tornado reported in open country across the southwest Texas Pahandle.

The tornado touched down in very rural portions of Oldham county|and remained in open prairie grassland with no structures or|trees hit and no damage reported. The entire life cycle of the|tornado was documented by a local storm spotter.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:33 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:52 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:06 UTC and running to 02:05 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 19:55 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.

Dalhart Municipal (DHT), 54 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:34 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 2021 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

16 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.