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F0 tornado in Dona Ana County, New Mexico

Tornado September 13, 2006 · Dona Ana County, New Mexico

F0
Rating
0.2 mi
Path length
30 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F0 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F0 meant light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken; the scale paired it with winds of 40–72 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A Las Cruces City Police officer sighted a tornado which briefly touched down west of Mesilla. It was in an area with no structures.

The wider storm

A heavy precipitation supercell thunderstorm tracked from far eastern Luna County eastward along Interstate 10 through Las Cruces. This storm dropped golf ball size hail throughout most of its lifetime, resulting in a 4 car collision on Interstate 10 in far eastern Luna County, and hundreds of damaged roofs and automobiles and destroyed skylights in Mesilla and south Las Cruces. The US Border Patrol Checkpoint was evacuated. Wind damage from a possible tornado occurred at the state fairgrounds west of Las Cruces (mainly to outbuildings and trees), while a tornado was sighted briefly just west of Mesilla. This was the costliest hail storm in the history of the NWS El Paso county warning area, totaling more than $10 million in damage from large hail driven by strong winds. Finally, 2 inches of rain within 30 minutes caused flash flooding in Picacho Hills (far west Las Cruces) and forced the closure of I-10 in western Dona Ana County.

Began near Las Cruces (32.2667, -106.8500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5534704. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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