Tornadoes · United States · Arizona · 2024

EF1 tornado, Littletown, Arizona, July 2, 2024

This EF1 tornado ran 3.3 miles across Pima County on July 2, 2024, touching down at 10:40 PM MST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

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 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
July 2, 2024
Touchdown
10:40 PM MST (05:40 UTC)
Lifted
10:50 PM MST (05:50 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
3.3 miles (5.2 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Pima County
Touchdown point
32.133, -110.838
Lift-off point
32.116, -110.797
Record number
2407022340-01

The damage survey

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TWC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

  • Pablo verde trees down by Amazon parking lot. 12 trees snapped or broken.
  • Shipping container moved and flipped on side
  • 5 branches palo verde broken in the area.
  • Roof tiles damage and a barrel cactus uprooted

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 late afternoon severe thunderstorm resulted in trees down in Tucson. Thereafter, a late evening thunderstorm resulted in an EF-1 tornado on the southeast side of Tucson.

A tornado with a maximum intensity of EF-1 developed in the vicinity of the Amazon Fulfillment Center near Kolb Road and Valencia Road. The tornado tracked towards the east-southeast, generally parallel to Valencia Road, and ended near Valencia Road and Frost Drive. Damage along the tornado path included many downed, snapped and uprooted trees, roof damage (primarily to tiles). Additionally, a large shipping container was moved and flipped on its side. The shipping container damaged a chain-link fence. ||Damage consistent with EF-1 rating was just south of Valencia Road near Old Vail Road and included large trees uprooted. Maximum estimated winds are 100 mph.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:50 UTC02:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningTWC
22:59 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTWC

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 00:49 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.

Tuscon, AZ (KTUS), 00:00Z

5.7 hours before the tornado, 9 km from the path. July 3, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tuscon, AZ at 00:00Z on 2024-07-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 384 joules per kilogram, CIN -148, lifted condensation level 2797 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Tuscon, AZ at 00:00Z on 2024-07-03The 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 26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939Sfc1 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
384 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-148 J/kg
Surface CAPE
274 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2797 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tuscon, AZ (KTUS), 12:00Z

6.3 hours after it, 9 km from the path. July 3, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tuscon, AZ at 12:00Z on 2024-07-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 232 joules per kilogram, CIN -239, lifted condensation level 1918 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Tuscon, AZ at 12:00Z on 2024-07-03The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
232 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-239 J/kg
Surface CAPE
536 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1918 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Davis-Monthan Afb (DMA), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
03:55 UTC935780° 6 kt1010.8
04:55 UTC93.456.3140° 10 kt1011.5
05:45 UTC82.462.6140° 26 kt1012.9VCTS RA
05:58 UTC80.664.4150° 15 kt251012.9VCTS
06:55 UTC77.466.4120° 15 kt1013.2

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

The radar

The Tucson radar (KEMX), 31 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:39 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
05:40 UTCTORNADO5 Se TucsonPima, AZDELAEYD REPORT. NWS meteorologists on a storm survey team confirmed an EF1 tornado with estimated peak winds of 100 mph and a path length of 3.25 miles. The tornado began 0.5 miles south southeast of the intersection bet

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 ArizonaEvery tornado in Arizona since 1950Warnings in force in Arizona 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.