Unrated tornado, Stanfield, Arizona, June 23, 2022

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

June 23, 2022

Touchdown

2:03 PM MST (21:03 UTC)

Lifted

2:08 PM MST (21:08 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

15 yards (14 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pinal County

Touchdown point

32.901, -112.026

Lift-off point

32.908, -112.019

Record number

2206231503-01

An upper-level low located over the Great Basin produced cooler than normal 500 mb temperature of between -9 and -10C and also some upper-level diffluence with a 50-60 kt jet at upper-levels. Moisture levels were also above normal with precipitable water values between 1.0-1.3 inches. The combination of all of these factors resulted in sufficient instability with MLCAPE values approaching 1000 J/KG while DCAPE values were approaching 1500 J/KG. Thunderstorms began to develop during the early to mid-afternoon hours across most of southern and central Arizona, with strong to locally damaging winds as well as dense blowing dust being the main hazards along with locally heavy rainfall. One of the damaged areas came just northwest of Stanfield, where there were multiple downed power poles as well as a rolled over RV. There were also visible photos from social media as well as from seasoned storm chasers of a couple of landspouts, one near damaged area just northwest of Stanfield and another over Buckeye. With respect to the landspout that developed just northwest of Stanfield, there was no confirmation that it was responsible for the damage observed, which most likely was due to downburst wind. No injuries were reported with these thunderstorms.

Multiple storm chaser photos show a landspout tornado developed northwest of Stanfield. It appeared to be moving northeast along a thunderstorm outflow through open farm fields. The exact location, timing, path length, and width were all estimated based on the photos and radar. It is unknown if the landspout caused any property or crop damage and no damage survey was conducted. An RV did flip and around 50 power poles did fall in this area, but these reports were attributed to downburst winds due to nearly all power poles falling to the north. No injuries were reported.

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 20:00 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.

Maricopa - Ak-chin (A39), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Phoenix radar (KIWA), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:03 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 2022 tornado in ArizonaEvery tornado in Arizona since 1950Warnings in force in Arizona nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.