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EF0 tornado in Santa Fe County, New Mexico

Tornado May 9, 2017 · Santa Fe County, New Mexico

EF0
Rating
0.3 mi
Path length
40 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 40 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A severe thunderstorm crossed Interstate 25 east of the Santa Fe airport then moved north along NM-599. This storm produced a brief EF-0 tornado 2.8 miles northeast of the Santa Fe airport, near NM-599 and Agua Fria, then tracked toward the north for approximately 0.3 miles. Mainly localized and minor damage was observed with this tornado event. The Santa Fe Airport tower personnel also spotted a funnel cloud north of the airport.

The wider storm

A potent upper level low pressure system moving slowly east across the desert southwest for several days combined with abundant moisture and instability on the 9th to generate a widespread, significant severe weather outbreak over central and eastern New Mexico. Isolated thunderstorms developed shortly after midnight in the area from Santa Fe to Farmington and produced quarter size hail with heavy rain and and strong winds. A large area of showers and thunderstorms developed shortly after sunrise over central New Mexico and moved north across the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metro areas through the early afternoon. Several funnel clouds and large hail were reported around the Estancia Valley. A brief tornado develop near the Santa Fe airport shortly after noon with minor damage reported. A major hailstorm struck the Interstate 25 corridor near Kewa Pueblo, resulting in damage to homes and vehicles. The next wave of storms that developed over central New Mexico produced tornadoes near Carrizozo, Clines Corners, and Wagon Mound. Large hail up to the size of golf balls was also reported with these storms. More storms firing up around the Albuquerque metro area produced nickel to quarter size hail from Rio Rancho north into the Jemez Mountains. Severe thunderstorms continued to pound eastern New Mexico well into the evening hours with golf ball to hen egg size hail producing damage in areas around Roswell and Tucumcari.

Began near Agua Fria (35.6425, -106.0433).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 687241. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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