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The Lubbock Tornado was an F5 tornado that occurred in Lubbock, Texas on May 11, 1970. It was one of the worst tornadoes in Texas history, and occurred exactly 17 years to the day after the deadly Waco Tornado. It is also the last F5 tornado to have hit a central business district of a large or mid-sized city. [1]

Costliest tornadoes in United States history
Rank	Area affected	Date	Damage1	Adj. damage2
1	North-central Georgia	March 31, 1973	1,250,000	5,175,000
2	Topeka, Kansas Tornado	June 8, 1966	250,000	1,420,000
3	Lubbock, Texas Tornado	May 11, 1970	250,000	1,185,000
4	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	May 3, 1999	1,000,000	1,100,000
5	Xenia, Ohio	April 3, 1974	250,000	932,500
6	Omaha, Nebraska	May 6, 1975	250,603	857,062
7	Wichita Falls, Texas	April 10, 1979	277,841	702,938
8	Grand Island, Nebraska	June 3, 1980	285,050	635,662
9	Windsor Locks, Connecticut	October 3, 1979	250,000	632,500
10	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	May 8, 2003	370,000	370,000
Source: Storm Prediction Center
1. These are the unadjusted damage totals in thousands of US dollars. Prior to 1994, official records used categories for "Damage class", so these values represent inflation-adjusted medians for a given damage class. If better numbers are available, a source is indicated. 2. Raw damage totals adjusted for inflation, in thousands of 2003 USD.

The tornado was seen on radar at about 9:35 P.M. local time in the vicinity of Brownfield Highway and 19th Street, just west of Texas Tech University. The tornado touched down just after passing over most of the school. Over the next 35 minutes, the tornado tore an 8½-mile (14 km) swath of destruction following a path from about 19th Street and University Avenue (just east of Texas Tech) through the western part of the downtown area to the area just southeast of present day Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. The tornado was at least 1½ miles (2 km) in width at one point. The storm was also accompanied by baseball sized hail.

The tornado killed 26 people. The victims ranged in age from 9 months to 88 years of age. Many of the victims were found in their homes and were killed by flying debris. Only a few were actually sucked into the tornado.

Approximately fifteen square miles (40 km²) of the city were either damaged or destroyed. It caused $125 million in damage making it, up to that point, the costliest tornado in U.S. history.

It is believed that this is the only F5 tornado ever to directly strike a skyscraper. The former Great Plains Life Building was physically twisted, although it was repaired and still stands today as the NTS Tower.

The tornado also served as a model for the development of the Fujita scale, developed a year later in 1971.

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
6	2	3	0	0	0	1

• List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

• The Column was a Casualty but its Memory Lives On, by Burle Pettit, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, May 8, 2005
• Special 35th Anniversary Section, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, May 11, 2005
• National Weather Service, Lubbock, TX summary of the tornado