Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2021

EF0 tornado, Kings Mill to Pampa, Texas, May 7, 2021

From Kings Mill to Pampa, this EF0 tornado ran 3.3 miles across Gray County on May 7, 2021, touching down at 6:40 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 mphthis tornado

    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. Unrated

    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
EF0
Date
May 7, 2021
Touchdown
6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)
Lifted
6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
3.3 miles (5.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Gray County
Touchdown point
35.524, -101.084
Lift-off point
35.528, -101.026
Record number
2105071740-01

What the Weather Service recorded

On Friday May 7th, thunderstorms formed over New Mexico and moved east into the combined Oklahoma and Texas Panhandle as an upper level disturbance worked around a ridge positioned across southern New Mexico. Marginal instability combined with dry air near the surface below the storm bases provided an environment mainly conducive for severe wind gusts, although some isolated hail reports were also received. Multiple automated weather stations across the area measured thunderstorm wind gusts in excess of 60 mph with the highest measured at 71 mph. There was even a quick moving land spout tornado that formed just west of Pampa, TX on a boundary produced by these storms.

The land spout tornado traveling along a fast moving outflow boundary with just weak showers above was captured on a local television station web cam moving across open country just west of Pampa. The tornado remained in open country farm and grasslands for 6 minutes and encountered few damage indicators. It did however cross two power lines and did not produce damage suggesting relatively weak winds before lifting as it reached additional structures just south of Highway 152 on Country Road 4.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:27 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
23:50 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA

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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

11.7 hours before the tornado, 67 km from the path. May 7, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2021-05-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -86228, lifted condensation level 1870 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2021-05-07The 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 341 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-86228 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1870 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
341 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
598 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 67 km from the path. May 8, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2021-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -135, lifted condensation level 2273 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2021-05-08The 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 -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-135 J/kg
Surface CAPE
146 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2273 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Pampa (PPA), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:55 UTC87.843.5200° 18 kt231011.9
22:15 UTC87.844190° 19 kt241011.5
22:35 UTC87.844180° 16 kt221011.2
22:55 UTC86.243.7170° 16 kt211010.2
23:15 UTC84.743.2170° 21 kt241009.1-TSRA
23:35 UTC84.743.5200° 16 kt201010.8
23:55 UTC77.743.7310° 32 kt441013.5-RA
00:15 UTC67.552.5350° 26 kt331013.9
00:35 UTC65.754.530° 25 kt301012.9-RA
00:55 UTC6654.340° 9 kt121014.2
01:15 UTC64.854.590° 8 kt1014.2
01:35 UTC63.554.3140° 10 kt1014.6

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

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:38 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
23:13 UTCTSTM WND GST 651 Nnw StinnettHutchinson, TX
23:13 UTCTSTM WND GST 653 N BorgerHutchinson, TX
23:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 711 Nnw StinnettHutchinson, TX
23:27 UTCTSTM WND GST 627 Nnw SkellytownHutchinson, TXBORGER 10E WEST TEXAS MESONET.
23:29 UTCHAIL 112 Wnw CodmanRoberts, TXHAIL WAS ACCUMULATING ON HIGHWAY 70.
23:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGStinnettHutchinson, TXTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS TREE LIMBS BEING SNAPPED OFF AND THROWN 2 TO 3 BLOCKS BEFORE LANDING ON THE GROUND. ALSO, POWER LINES ARE ARCING.
23:48 UTCTSTM WND GST 5822 Sse SpearmanRoberts, TX
23:48 UTCHAIL 1MiamiRoberts, TXPENNY TO QUARTER SIZE HAIL.
00:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 651 E McleanGray, TX

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

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.