Tornadoes · United States · California · 2005

F0 tornado, Hemet, California, July 23, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Riverside County on July 23, 2005, touching down at 2:06 PM PDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 of property damage.

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
July 23, 2005
Touchdown
2:06 PM PDT (21:06 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$2,000
County
Riverside County
Touchdown point
33.730, -116.950
Lift-off point
33.720, -117.000
Record number
249

What the Weather Service recorded

A severe thunderstorm rapidly developed just before 2:00 PM northeast of Hemet along the Elsinore Convergence Zone. This storm produced a tornado, damaging straight line winds to 70 mph, dime to nickel size hail, and flash flooding. The storm traveled southwestward along the Elsinore Convergence Zone before dissipating near interstate 15 in Murrieta. The majority of the reported damage consisted of downed trees and flooded roads and property.

A tornado was spotted at around 2:06 PM near the intersection of highways 74 and 79. The weak tornado traveled westward towards Hemet-Ryan airport and resulted in mainly broken trees limbs.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
08:00 UTC09:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningSGX
20:46 UTC22:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningSGX
21:09 UTC23:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningSGX
21:15 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningSGX
21:51 UTC22:37 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSGX

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 20:21 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.

San Diego, CA (KNKX), 12:00Z

9.1 hours before the tornado, 105 km from the path. July 23, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, San Diego, CA at 12:00Z on 2005-07-23Temperature 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 -65499, lifted condensation level 1413 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, San Diego, CA at 12:00Z on 2005-07-23The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65499 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1413 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

San Diego, CA (KNKX), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 105 km from the path. July 24, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, San Diego, CA at 00:00Z on 2005-07-24Temperature 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 -56369, lifted condensation level 1325 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, San Diego, CA at 00:00Z on 2005-07-24The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-56369 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1325 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Santa Ana Mts radar (KSOX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:04 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
20:52 UTCHAIL 0.5HighlandSan Bernardino, CAPEASIZE TO SLIGHTLY SMALLER THAN DIME SIZE
21:12 UTCTORNADOHemetRiverside, CACLOSE TO THE INTERSECTION OF HWY 74 AND HWY 79 IN HEMET
21:21 UTCFLASH FLOODHemetRiverside, CAAMHERST ST IN HEMET. RAINFALL RATE OF 3/4 OF AN INCH PER HOUR
21:21 UTCHAIL 0.75HemetRiverside, CA
21:25 UTCHAIL 0.5San JacintoRiverside, CAPEA TO DIME SIZE HAIL
21:25 UTCHEAVY RAIN 0HemetRiverside, CA1.00 INCH IN 15 MINUTES
21:25 UTCHEAVY RAIN 0San JacintoRiverside, CA1.50 INCHES IN 30 MINS.
21:25 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1HemetRiverside, CA1.00 INCH IN 15 MINUTES
21:25 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1HemetRiverside, CAIN A 15 MINUTE PERIOD
21:25 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.5San JacintoRiverside, CA1.50 INCHES IN 30 MINS.
21:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 0SageRiverside, CA0.50 INCH IN 10 MINUTES
21:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 0.5SageRiverside, CA0.50 INCH IN 10 MINUTES
22:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGHemetRiverside, CATREES DOWNED. WIND GUSTS TO 60 MPH.
22:05 UTCFLASH FLOODHemetRiverside, CADOMENIGONI PRKWY. STREET FLOODED. SEVERAL VEHICLES STALLED.
22:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 70HemetRiverside, CATHE FIRE DEPT. REPORTED AN ESTIMATED WIND GUST BETWEEN 60 AND 70 MPH.
22:05 UTCHAIL 0.88HemetRiverside, CA
22:30 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.5HemetRiverside, CA1.50 INCHES OF RAIN WAS MEASURED AT A HEMET FIRE STN.
22:30 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.65HemetRiverside, CA1.65 INCH RAINFALL TOTAL FROM THUNDERSTORM

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.