EF0 tornado, (Phx)Sky Harbor Arpt, Arizona, August 3, 2017

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

August 3, 2017

Touchdown

5:05 PM MST (00:05 UTC)

Lifted

5:10 PM MST (00:10 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Maricopa County

Touchdown point

33.410, -112.070

Lift-off point

33.411, -112.068

Record number

1708031805-01

Scattered monsoon thunderstorms developed across portions of the south central deserts during the afternoon and early evening hours and they impacted the greater Phoenix area. The stronger storms produced gusty and damaging outflow winds that blew over a number of trees in downtown Phoenix as well as Paradise Valley and other communities across north Phoenix including the town of Deer Valley. Trees and power poles were blown down near Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Wind gusts with the stronger storms were estimated to be at least as high as 70 mph. No injuries were reported due to the gusty winds. Additionally, one of the storms generated a weak landspout tornado which was very short lived and produced no damage.

August 3rd was a very active day, convectively speaking, as widespread thunderstorms affected the greater Phoenix area during the afternoon and evening hours. The stronger storms produced gusty and damaging outflow winds as well as very heavy rain. In addition, one storm generated a weak tornado across south Phoenix during the late afternoon hours. The tornado was located just south of the Salt River, near the intersection of Central Avenue and Broadway Road. The tornado was reported by a trained weather spotter who had video evidence of the tornado. It was corroborated by Phoenix Terminal Doppler Radar data which supported a brief landspout tornado. The tornado was very short lived, had a very short track as well as a narrow path width, and produced no damage or injuries. Nevertheless, due to the extreme rarity of tornadoes in the greater Phoenix area, this was a noteworthy event.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Phoenix/Sky Harbor (PHX), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Phoenix radar (KIWA), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:06 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in ArizonaEvery tornado in Arizona since 1950Warnings in force in Arizona nowThe forecast where you are

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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