Unrated tornado, Ft Stockton, Texas, May 31, 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 31, 2021

Touchdown

3:21 PM CDT (20:21 UTC)

Lifted

3:37 PM CDT (20:37 UTC)

On the ground

16 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.1 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pecos County

Touchdown point

30.605, -102.870

Lift-off point

30.586, -102.728

Record number

2105311421-01

An upper trough was over the region with abundant low-level moisture present across West Texas. A cold front was moving southward from southwest Oklahoma and there was a nearly stationary outflow boundary across Ector County from storms the previous day. Rain and thunderstorms were across the Permian Basin during the morning hours which resulted in hail across portions of the area. High instability due to clearing skies allowed for severe thunderstorms to develop across the southern Permian Basin and in Pecos County during the afternoon hours. These storms produced large hail and tornadoes. Flash flooding developed across portions of the Permian Basin during the early afternoon hours.

A thunderstorm produced a tornado nineteen miles south of Fort Stockton. This tornado lasted sixteen minutes and traveled 6.3 miles to twenty-two miles south southeast of Fort Stockton. The timing and location of the tornado was estimated by both spotter reports and radar. This tornado was observed to have lifted and touched down multiple times. The tornado remained over very rural terrain on private land and did not encounter any damage indicators and was therefore rated as an EF-Unknown.

A thunderstorm produced a tornado 21 miles south southeast of Fort Stockton and it lifted 23 miles south southeast of Fort Stockton. The tornado tracked southeast with the storm and lasted around eight minutes before wrapping around a wall cloud and becoming obscured to spotters. The path length was estimated to be 3.3 miles and since the tornado remained over private rural land with no damage reported, it was rated as an EF-Unknown.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:16 UTC and running to 02:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Fort Stockton (FST), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 161 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:22 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 2021 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.