Tornadoes · United States · Hawaii · 2011

EF0 tornado, I Kihei, Hawaii, February 11, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Maui County on February 11, 2011, touching down at 2:15 PM HST and reaching 10 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    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
EF0
Date
February 11, 2011
Touchdown
2:15 PM HST (00:15 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Maui County
Touchdown point
20.772, -156.448
Lift-off point
20.772, -156.448
Record number
1102111815-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front advancing from the west brought heavy rain, showers, thunderstorms, and a weak tornado over the western parts of the island chain, causing flash flooding in parts of Oahu and Maui. There were no reports of serious injuries. Any property damage costs were not available.

A funnel cloud briefly touched down near Kihei on the island of Maui. Police officers reported no property damage 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)ExpiredProductOffice
00:44 UTC03:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryHFO
01:56 UTC04:40 UTCFlood AdvisoryHFO
06:06 UTC09:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryHFO
08:58 UTC10:16 UTCFlood AdvisoryHFO

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

0.3 hours before the tornado, 191 km from the path. February 12, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Hilo, at 00:00Z on 2011-02-12Temperature 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 -41703, lifted condensation level 1157 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, Hilo, at 00:00Z on 2011-02-12The 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 37 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41703 J/kg
Surface CAPE
788 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1157 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
37 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Hilo, (PITO), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 191 km from the path. February 12, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Hilo, at 12:00Z on 2011-02-12Temperature 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 -106, lifted condensation level 944 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 12:00Z on 2011-02-12The 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 -20 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-106 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
944 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-8 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Kahului (PHOG), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:54 UTC7767350° 6 kt1013.9
23:54 UTC796720° 10 kt1013.2
00:54 UTC7668360° 8 kt1012.9-RA
01:54 UTC7568350° 9 kt1012.9-RA

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

The radar

The Molokai radar (PHMO), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:13 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
00:05 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 N KiheiMaui In Maui, HI
00:15 UTCTORNADOKiheiMaui, HIMAUI POLICE REPORTED THAT A FUNNEL CLOUD BRIEFLY TOUCHED GROUND BEFORE LIFTING BACK INTO THE CLOUD NEAR KIHEI. NO DAMAGE REPORTED.
02:55 UTCFLASH FLOODKiheiMaui, HISOUTH KIHEI ROAD CLOSED DUE TO WATER FLOWING ACROSS ROADWAY.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 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.