Tornadoes · United States · California · 2005

F0 tornado, (Pmd)Palmdale Arpt, California, August 15, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Los Angeles County on August 15, 2005, touching down at 6:53 PM PDT and reaching 33 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 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
F0
Date
August 15, 2005
Touchdown
6:53 PM PDT (01:53 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Los Angeles County
Touchdown point
34.720, -117.980
Lift-off point
34.720, -117.980
Record number
337

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado touched down briefly about 8 miles northeast of the Palmdale Airport. The tornado was nearly-stationary. No reports of injuries or damage were received.

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
09:27 UTC10:33 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOX

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 00:53 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.

Edwards AFB, CA (KEDW), 12:00Z

10.1 hours after it, 26 km from the path. August 16, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Edwards AFB, CA at 12:00Z on 2005-08-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 622 joules per kilogram, CIN -114, lifted condensation level 1432 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, Edwards AFB, CA at 12:00Z on 2005-08-16The 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 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
622 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-114 J/kg
Surface CAPE
705 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1432 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Palmdate (PMD), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:53 UTC8651 3 kt1013.9
00:53 UTC8656250° 11 kt1013.9
01:53 UTC8354250° 12 kt1013.9
02:53 UTC8056300° 13 kt1014.9

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
01:06 UTCHAIL 12 Sw California CityKern, CALARGE HAIL LASTED ABOUT 10 MINUTES.
01:20 UTCHAIL 16 S California CityKern, CALASTED 10 MINUTES
01:20 UTCHAIL 1.252 Sw California CityKern, CALARGEST HAIL LASTED 10 MINUTES
01:45 UTCHAIL 0.884 Nw California CityKern, CALARGEST HAIL LASTED 15 MINUTES.
01:53 UTCTORNADO 05 Se Edwards AfbKern, CATORNADO QUASI-STATIONARY AND ON-GROUND FOR 9 MINUTES. PATH WIDTH 50 YARDS.
02:02 UTCHAIL 0.887 Wsw BoronKern, CAHAIL SWATH CROSSED HIGHWAY 58 WEST OF BORON AND EXTENDED TOWARD CALIFORNIA CITY.
02:05 UTCHAIL 1.75California CityKern, CALARGEST HAIL LASTED 10 MINUTES.
02:05 UTCLIGHTNINGCalifornia CityKern, CASTRUCK TRAFFIC LIGHT DOWNTOWN.
02:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 70California CityKern, CASEVERAL LARGE SIGNS BLOWN DOWN AROUND TOWN. HIGH WIND LASTED 15 MINUTES.
02:56 UTCFLASH FLOODCalifornia CityKern, CARAINFALL OF 5 INCHES WITHIN 1 HOUR ENDING AT 2000 PDT.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California 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.