Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2021
Unrated tornado, Marathon, Texas, May 28, 2021
This Unrated tornado ran 1.1 miles across Brewster County on May 28, 2021, touching down at 2:54 PM CDT and reaching 50 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 28, 2021
- Touchdown
- 2:54 PM CDT (19:54 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:59 PM CDT (19:59 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 1.1 miles (1.7 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Brewster County
- Touchdown point
- 30.026, -103.333
- Lift-off point
- 30.014, -103.321
- Record number
- 2105281354-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A front was across the Permian Basin. A dryline was across Southeast New Mexico and far West Texas. The front and dryline provided lift and a focus for thunderstorms to develop. The atmosphere was very moist and unstable. Wind shear was also high across the area. These conditions resulted in thunderstorms across West Texas that produced hail and strong, damaging winds as well as a tornado.
A thunderstorm produced a tornado 13 miles south southwest of Marathon. The tornado lasted approximately five minutes. It occurred on private land in an open field and no damage was reported. It was rated as an EF-U.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:46 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:23 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF |
| 19:46 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | MAF |
| 20:30 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | MAF |
| 21:38 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF |
| 21:52 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | MAF |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:27 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.
Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z
7.9 hours before the tornado, 240 km from the path. May 28, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1694 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -279 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3194 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1059 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 171 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 164 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z
4.1 hours after it, 240 km from the path. May 29, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2460 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -89 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3733 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1075 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 55 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 7 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 59 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 267 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.7
- Supercell composite
- 18.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.4 K/km
The radar
The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 240 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:54 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:54 UTC | TORNADO | 13 Ssw Marathon | Brewster, TX | TORNADO LASTED APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES FROM 1454 THROUGH 1459. TORNADO OCCURRED ON PRIVATE LAND IN AN OPEN FIELD AND NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED. PRELIMINARY RATING IS EF-U. |
| 21:46 UTC | HAIL 1 | Alpine | Brewster, TX | SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT OF PEA SIZED HAIL WITH QUARTER SIZE HAIL MIXED IN. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 28, 2021
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 28 | 2:53 AM CDT | EF1 | Webster Parish, LA | 2.5 | 300 | $1.0 million | ||
| May 28 | 12:57 PM CDT | EF0 | Putnam, TN | 12.8 | 150 | $50,000 | ||
| May 28 | 1:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Overton, TN | 1.0 | 50 | 2 | $10,000 | |
| May 28 | 2:01 PM MDT | EF0 | Colfax, NM | 0.5 | 30 | |||
| May 28 | 2:01 PM MDT | EF0 | Colfax, NM | 0.6 | 60 | |||
| May 28 | 5:36 PM MDT | EF0 | Lincoln, NM | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 28 | 7:58 PM EDT | EF0 | Westmoreland, VA | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 28 | 7:31 PM CDT | EF0 | Bastrop, TX | 1.4 | 50 | $5,000 |
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.