Tornadoes · United States · Arizona · 2022

EF0 tornado, Dinnehotso, Arizona, September 13, 2022

This EF0 tornado ran 7.7 miles across Apache County on September 13, 2022, touching down at 5:45 PM MST and reaching 10 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
September 13, 2022
Touchdown
5:45 PM MST (00:45 UTC)
Lifted
5:50 PM MST (00:50 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
7.7 miles (12.4 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Apache County
Touchdown point
36.840, -109.850
Lift-off point
36.951, -109.839
Record number
2209131845-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A trough just to the west of Arizona and southerly flow aloft helped produce scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms. Some storms produced large hail, funnel clouds, and small tornadoes.

A tornado formed and traveled along the leading edge of a thunderstorm outflow boundary.

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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 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.

Flgstf/Belemont, AZ (KFGZ), 00:00Z

0.8 hours before the tornado, 255 km from the path. September 14, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Flgstf/Belemont, AZ at 00:00Z on 2022-09-14Temperature 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 -94072, lifted condensation level 2752 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km6 km9 km12 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, Flgstf/Belemont, AZ at 00:00Z on 2022-09-14The 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 116 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
-94072 J/kg
Surface CAPE
127 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2752 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Flgstf/Belemont, AZ (KFGZ), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 255 km from the path. September 14, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Flgstf/Belemont, AZ at 12:00Z on 2022-09-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 152 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 665 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Flgstf/Belemont, AZ at 12:00Z on 2022-09-14The 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 88 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
152 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
96 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
665 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Blanding (BDG), 83 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:55 UTC68.448.6310° 12 kt161020
23:15 UTC68.747.5260° 4 kt1020
23:35 UTC67.847280° 6 kt1020
23:55 UTC68.746.6300° 7 kt1020
00:15 UTC68.545.7290° 10 kt1020
00:35 UTC67.845.5290° 7 kt1020
00:55 UTC67.345.3290° 9 kt1020
01:15 UTC6745280° 6 kt1020
01:35 UTC65.847.3220° 15 kt321021.3
01:55 UTC58.654280° 11 kt181021.3
02:15 UTC57.254290° 10 kt171021.3
02:35 UTC5753.2330° 10 kt171021

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

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
00:45 UTCTORNADODennehotsoApache, AZGUSTNADO OBSERVED TO HAVE FORMED AND TRAVELED ALONG THE LEADING EDGE OF THUNDERSTORM OUTFLOW.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in ArizonaEvery tornado in Arizona since 1950Warnings in force in Arizona nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 13, 2022

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 1312:00 PM MDTEF0Navajo, AZ0.110

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.