Tornadoes · United States · Alaska · 2024

EF0 tornado, Anchorage, Alaska, April 19, 2024

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Alaska on April 19, 2024, touching down at 11:13 PM CDT and reaching 1 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
April 19, 2024
Touchdown
11:13 PM CDT (04:13 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
1 yards (1 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Not recorded
Touchdown point
61.130, -149.660
Lift-off point
61.130, -149.660
Record number
2404192213-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.

  • Weak landspout observed near Rusty Point.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak landspout was observed near Rusty Point, AK, by a member of the general public in Anchorage. A lenticular cloud was noted over the mountain peak at the time, which was attached to the landspout. With no radar available to aid in the landspout's diagnosis, it is theorized that downsloping winds, enhanced by south and southeasterly winds, created an area of wind shear in a topographically varying region, which was then lifted vertically with an upslope flow, thus producing the observed landspout.

Weak landspout observed near Rusty Point.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Anchorage Iap/Pt. Campbe, (PANC), 00:00Z

4.2 hours before the tornado, 19 km from the path. April 20, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Anchorage Iap/Pt. Campbe, at 00:00Z on 2024-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -116632, lifted condensation level 2398 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Anchorage Iap/Pt. Campbe, at 00:00Z on 2024-04-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 149 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-116632 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2398 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
149 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
449 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Anchorage Iap/Pt. Campbe, (PANC), 12:00Z

7.8 hours after it, 19 km from the path. April 20, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Anchorage Iap/Pt. Campbe, at 12:00Z on 2024-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -121306, lifted condensation level 2408 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Anchorage Iap/Pt. Campbe, at 12:00Z on 2024-04-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 83 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-121306 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2408 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
303 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Kenai radar (PAHG), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:09 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
04:13 UTCTORNADORusty PointAnchorage, AKWeak landspout observed near Rusty Point.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in AlaskaEvery tornado in Alaska since 1950Warnings in force in Alaska nowThe forecast where you are

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.