Tornado in Arizona, September 9, 2003

Name: Tornado in Arizona, September 9, 2003
Start: 2003-09-09T18:50
End: 2003-09-09T19:15
Location: Arizona

September 9, 2003 · NWS FGZ · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Flagstaff, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 9, 2:30 PM MST, 4 hours 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 9, 2:30 PM MST, 4 hours 20 minutes before

NORTHERN ARIZONA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FLAGSTAFF AZ
230 PM MST TUE SEP 9 2003

.SYNOPSIS...FREQUENT SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL AFFECT MUCH OF
THE REGION THROUGH TONIGHT BUT TAPPER OF ON WEDNESDAY. DRIER NORTHERLY
FLOW WILL MOVE OVER ARIZONA BY THURSDAY...WITH NO PRECIPITATION
EXPECTED LATE THIS WEEK AND INTO THE COMING WEEKEND. COOL
TEMPERATURES WILL ACCOMPANY THE SHOWERS ON WEDNESDAY...WITH
CONDITIONS RETURNING TO NORMAL BY THE WEEKEND.

.DISCUSSION...A LONG-WAVE TROUGH WILL REMAIN OVER THE WESTERN UNITED
STATES TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY WITH A SERIES OF SHORT-WAVE DISTURBANCES
MOVING THROUGH THE FLOW. PLENTY OF TROPICAL MOISTURE HAS MOVED INTO
NORTHERN ARIZONA AND ANY SHOWERS OR THUNDERSTORMS THAT FORM ARE SURE
TO PRODUCE HEAVY RAIN. THE BEST COMBINATION OF UPSLOPE
FLOW...MOISTURE AND UPPER DYNAMIC WILL MOVE ACROSS THE MOGOLLON
RIM...YAVAPAI AND GILA COUNTIES INTO TONIGHT. ANOTHER
AREA TO WATCH WILL BE FAR NORTHEAST ARIZONA WHERE MOISTURE...DYNAMICS
AND COLD AIR ALOFT WILL COMBINE TO PRODUCE ANOTHER AREA OF FOCUS FOR
HEAVY STORMS.

THE LONG-WAVE TROUGH MOVES TO THE EAST ON THURSDAY WITH A DRIER AIR
MASS MOVING ACROSS THE AREA.

IN THE EXTENDED...MODELS SHOWING DRY WEATHER THROUGH SUNDAY WITH
FALL-LIKE WEATHER. FOR MONDAY AND BEYOND MODELS ARE HINTING THAT
MOISTURE AND THE CHANCE OF STORMS COULD RETURN BUT FOR NOW JUST WENT
WITH INCREASING CLOUDS.

MCCOLLUM

.NOTE...EFFECTIVE WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1 2003...THE TEMPERATURES AND
PROBABILITIES OF PRECIPITATION TABLE (BELOW) WILL NO LONGER BE
APPENDED TO THIS PRODUCT. THE INFORMATION...ALONG WITH PREVAILING
DAYTIME WEATHER...WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE RECENTLY ADOPTED TABULAR
STATE FORECAST (SFT). THE SFT PROVIDES THESE FORECASTS THROUGH 7
DAYS. THE WMO HEADER FOR THIS PRODUCT IS FPUS65 KPSR. THE PRODUCT
IDENTIFIER IS PHXSFTAZ. USING THE INTERNET...YOU CAN ACCESS THE SFT
DIRECTLY AT HTTP://WWW.WRH.NOAA.GOV/CGI-BIN/GPRODUCT.PL?FLGPHXSFTAZ

.FGZ...FFA UNTIL 8 PM MST AZ ZONES 8/10/11/12/16/16/17/18/37/38/39/40.

.CODED TEMPERATURES/POPS FOR SELECTED CITIES IN NORTHERN ARIZONA

CITY             TEMPERATURES LO/HI           PROBABILITY OF PRECIP
                 TON WED   THU     FRI        TON WED   THU     FRI
FLAGSTAFF        051/066 042/069 039/072      070 060 020 000 000 000
WINSLOW          062/079 051/080 048/083      050 030 010 000 000 000
PRESCOTT         058/077 051/079 048/082      070 040 010 000 000 000
PAGE             068/082 062/083 059/086      040 020 000 000 000 000
WINDOW ROCK      052/070 045/073 042/076      070 050 020 000 000 000
CANYON DE CHELLY 059/076 052/079 049/082      060 040 010 000 000 000
COTTONWOOD       066/088 059/090 056/093      060 050 020 000 000 000
GRAND CANYON     052/067 043/070 040/073      060 030 000 000 000 000
GREER            050/063 041/066 038/069      070 060 030 000 000 000
HEBER            054/071 045/074 042/077      070 050 020 000 000 000
JACOB LAKE       051/063 042/066 039/069      040 000 000 000 000 000
NAVAJO N.M.      058/068 051/071 048/074      060 040 010 000 000 000
PAYSON           058/081 051/083 048/086      060 050 020 000 000 000
SEDONA           065/085 058/087 055/090      060 050 020 000 000 000
SELIGMAN         056/079 049/081 046/084      040 000 000 000 000 000
SHOW LOW         060/072 051/075 048/078      060 040 020 000 000 000
ST. JOHNS        058/075 047/076 044/079      050 040 010 000 000 000
WUPATKI N.M.     064/081 053/082 050/085      060 040 010 000 000 000

Hazardous weather outlook, Sep 9, 10:00 AM MST, 8 hours 50 minutes before

AZZ004>018-037>040-100200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FLAGSTAFF AZ
1000 AM MST TUE SEP 9 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR APACHE...COCONINO...NORTHERN
GILA...NAVAJO...AND YAVAPAI COUNTIES IN NORTHERN ARIZONA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF NORTHERN ARIZONA
UNTIL 8 PM MST...

A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE GREAT BASIN WILL BRING
TROPICAL MOISTURE NORTHWARD INTO NORTHERN ARIZONA THROUGH THIS
EVENING. FREQUENT SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED OVER
NORTHERN ARIZONA...SOME RAIN WILL BE VERY HEAVY. AREAS ALONG AND
SOUTH OF THE MOGOLLON RIM AND WHITE MOUNTAINS WILL RECEIVE THE
MOST RAINFALL.  IN ADDITION...MOISTURE HAS MOVED INTO NORTHEAST
ARIZONA IN THE AREA OF BLACK MESA...CHINLE VALLEY AND THE CHUSKA
MOUNTAINS. SOME AREAS IN THE WATCH AREA WILL RECEIVE TOTALS
OF 1 TO 3 INCHES THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER
CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.

DEFINITION OF HAZARDOUS WEATHER...A WEATHER EVENT POSING A THREAT
TO LIFE AND PROPERTY.

The radar

The Flagstaff radar (KFSX), 181 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:49 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Apache

When: September 9, 6:50 PM MST to 7:15 PM MST
Where: Apache County, Wide Ruin
Rating: F0
Path length: 1 mi
Path width: 100 yd
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 35.417, -109.500

A tornado uprooted trees 12 miles west of Wide Ruins.

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Arizona in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Arizona, 2003 Warnings in Arizona, September 2003

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5337049.