Tornadoes · United States · Arizona · 2024
Unrated tornado, Arizona City, Arizona, March 7, 2024
This Unrated tornado ran 0.3 miles across Pinal County on March 7, 2024, touching down at 2:39 PM MST and reaching 40 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- Unrated
- Date
- March 7, 2024
- Touchdown
- 2:39 PM MST (21:39 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:47 PM MST (21:47 UTC)
- On the ground
- 8 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 40 yards (37 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Pinal County
- Touchdown point
- 32.790, -111.701
- Lift-off point
- 32.791, -111.700
- Record number
- 2403071539-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A low pressure system moving across the Desert Southwest resulted in shower and thunderstorm activity across most of south-central AZ during the afternoon hours on the 7th. A landspout was generated from a thunderstorm cell moving just south of Casa Grande, AZ. The landspout developed over an open field area near the Casa Grande Mountains with no damages nor injuries reported. Landspout lasted for about 8 minutes.
Visual photos showed a weak landspout developed over an open field near the Casa Grande Mountains just south of Casa Grande, AZ from a thunderstorm cell moving over the area. The landspout lasted for about 8 minutes with no evidence of any damages or injuries.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:13 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | PSR |
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 19:58 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 surface observations
Casa Granda (Awos) (CGZ), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:40 UTC | 290° 5 kt | 1010.2 | -RA | |||
| 19:45 UTC | 270° 7 kt | 1010.5 | -RA | |||
| 19:50 UTC | 1011.2 | RA | ||||
| 19:51 UTC | 57.2 | 46.4 | 220° 18 kt | 27 | 1011.2 | VCTS RA |
| 19:55 UTC | 230° 11 kt | 1011.2 | +RA | |||
| 19:56 UTC | 53 | 48 | 230° 11 kt | 27 | 1011.2 | VCTS +RA |
| 20:00 UTC | 230° 8 kt | 1011.2 | -RA BR | |||
| 20:01 UTC | 53.6 | 48.2 | 230° 7 kt | 1011.2 | -TSRA BR | |
| 20:05 UTC | 290° 4 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 20:10 UTC | 340° 5 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 20:15 UTC | 10° 4 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 20:20 UTC | 350° 4 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 20:25 UTC | 340° 4 kt | 1010.8 | ||||
| 20:30 UTC | 340° 5 kt | 1010.8 | ||||
| 20:35 UTC | 360° 7 kt | 1010.5 | ||||
| 20:40 UTC | 360° 5 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 20:44 UTC | 55.4 | 46.4 | 350° 5 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |
| 20:45 UTC | 350° 5 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 20:50 UTC | 10° 5 kt | 1010.5 | -RA | |||
| 20:55 UTC | 360° 2 kt | 1010.5 | -RA | |||
| 20:56 UTC | 56 | 48 | 20° 5 kt | 1010.5 | -RA | |
| 21:00 UTC | 10° 5 kt | 1010.5 | -RA | |||
| 21:05 UTC | 10° 5 kt | 1010.5 | -RA | |||
| 21:10 UTC | 350° 10 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 21:15 UTC | 1010.8 | -RA | ||||
| 21:20 UTC | 1010.8 | |||||
| 21:25 UTC | 22 | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 21:30 UTC | 1010.8 | RA | ||||
| 21:35 UTC | 350° 11 kt | 1010.8 | RA | |||
| 21:40 UTC | 350° 13 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 21:45 UTC | 10° 11 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 21:50 UTC | 360° 11 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 21:55 UTC | 10° 11 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 21:56 UTC | 50 | 47 | 10° 11 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |
| 22:00 UTC | 10° 11 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 22:05 UTC | 10° 7 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 22:10 UTC | 10° 9 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 22:15 UTC | 20° 7 kt | 1011.2 | -RA | |||
| 22:20 UTC | 30° 8 kt | 1010.8 | -RA | |||
| 22:25 UTC | 30° 7 kt | 1011.2 | ||||
| 22:30 UTC | 30° 7 kt | 1011.2 | ||||
| 22:35 UTC | 20° 9 kt | 1011.2 | ||||
| 22:40 UTC | 360° 8 kt | 1011.2 | ||||
| 22:45 UTC | 360° 5 kt | 1011.2 | ||||
| 22:50 UTC | 350° 5 kt | 1011.5 | ||||
| 22:55 UTC | 290° 4 kt | 1011.9 | ||||
| 22:56 UTC | 54 | 46 | 290° 4 kt | 1011.9 | -RA | |
| 23:00 UTC | 290° 5 kt | 1011.9 | RA | |||
| 23:05 UTC | 290° 4 kt | 1012.2 | RA | |||
| 23:10 UTC | 310° 8 kt | 1012.2 | RA | |||
| 23:15 UTC | 330° 2 kt | 1011.9 | RA | |||
| 23:20 UTC | 20° 10 kt | 1011.5 | -RA | |||
| 23:25 UTC | 360° 8 kt | 1011.5 | RA | |||
| 23:30 UTC | 20° 9 kt | 1011.5 | -RA | |||
| 23:35 UTC | 60° 9 kt | 1010.8 | RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Phoenix radar (KIWA), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:40 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.
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.