Tornadoes in the Borderland? Landspout tornadoes confirmed near Sierra Blanca

There is a long-standing myth that the Borderland doesn’t get tornadoes. This simply isn’t true.

Two landspouts observed late Tuesday afternoon in Hudspeth County were in fact tornadoes, the National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday.

The landspouts were spotted and photographed around 4:20 p.m. Tuesday about 13 miles northeast of Sierra Blanca.

The last time a tornado touched down in Sierra Blanca was in June 2007. A tornado also occurred in Cornudas in August 2005. A more recent sighting of landspouts in the Borderland happened in October 2015 near Ruidoso, according to ABC-7 archives.

Meteorologists say landspouts form when boundaries merge near a thunderstorm.

What makes this different than the “typical” tornado, is how they develop and what they are attached to.

Unlike super cell tornadoes, they do not move from base of the cloud to the ground. Instead, landspouts actually develop near the surface and work their way up.

KVIA 2019