Tornadoes · United States · Hawaii · 2004

F0 tornado, Pahala, Hawaii, February 28, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Hawaii County on February 28, 2004, touching down at 10:30 PM HST and reaching 25 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
February 28, 2004
Touchdown
10:30 PM HST (08:30 UTC)
Path length
5.0 miles (8.0 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hawaii County
Touchdown point
19.180, -155.470
Lift-off point
19.420, -155.230
Record number
724

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down in the Kau District on the Big Island of Hawaii. The twister mainly impacted Namakani Paio campground west of the town of Volcano and downed many trees in the area, especially cypress. Some homes in the area were damaged by the falling trees, and some power lines were snapped or downed. Cost of damages was not available. There were no reports of serious 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.

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 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.

Hilo, (PITO), 00:00Z

8.5 hours before the tornado, 59 km from the path. February 28, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Hilo, at 00:00Z on 2004-02-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -360, lifted condensation level 1399 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, Hilo, at 00:00Z on 2004-02-28The 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 152 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-360 J/kg
Surface CAPE
793 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1399 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
152 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
358 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Hilo, (PITO), 12:00Z

3.5 hours after it, 59 km from the path. February 28, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Hilo, at 12:00Z on 2004-02-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 308 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 612 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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, Hilo, at 12:00Z on 2004-02-28The 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 243 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
308 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
551 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
612 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
335 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in HawaiiEvery tornado in Hawaii since 1950Warnings in force in Hawaii 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.