EF1 tornado, Ft Stockton to Baldridge, Texas, June 2, 2023

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

June 2, 2023

Touchdown

1:57 PM CDT (18:57 UTC)

Lifted

2:15 PM CDT (19:15 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.6 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pecos County

Touchdown point

30.870, -102.660

Lift-off point

30.850, -102.630

Record number

2306021257-01

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MAF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

• Point to indicate width, soto plant displaced
• Point used to mark width/less vegetation damage.
• Smaller mesquite uprooted nearby
• Clear convergence of vegetation

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A large closed upper-low was located over the northern Great Plains with a shortwave trough to the south within the sub-tropical jet stream. These features helped bring rich moisture and instability into the region. Widespread strong to severe thunderstorms developed across much of the region. The Permian Basin and the Stockton Plateau were the two main areas of note. Severe winds, large hail. and a brief tornado was observed in this northern complex. To the south, several long-track, cyclic supercells produced tornadoes and very large hail over rural portions of Pecos and Terrell Counties.

A few storm chasers reported a tornado northeast of Fort Stockton that lifted within a few minutes after they spotted it. Their videos and photos were used in conjunction with radar to determine the approximate path and time of this tornado. Due to the rural location and lack of damage indicators, no damage was found and the tornado was rated EF-Unknown. Path width is also estimated.

A tornado began near the I-10 and Hwy 67 junction east of Fort Stockton in Pecos County. Damage indicators show that the tornado began as an EF-0 before growing in width and strengthening to an EF-1 about 5 minutes after it began. The tornado continued in a southeast direction as an EF-1 before dropping to an EF-0 just before lifting around 20 minutes after it began.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:45 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:57 UTC and running to 01:00 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 15:56 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), 27 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), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:57 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.

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 2023 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.