EF0 tornado, Kailua, Hawaii, March 9, 2012

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 9, 2012

Touchdown

7:10 AM HST (17:10 UTC)

Lifted

7:20 AM HST (17:20 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Honolulu County

Touchdown point

21.393, -157.715

Lift-off point

21.380, -157.730

Record number

1203091110-01

A cold front and an upper-level low combined to generate severe weather across much of the Aloha State. Significant weather included thunderstorms, flash flooding, record-setting hail, and a tornado. Although the total cost of damages was not available for the entire state, preliminary numbers include $2 million in infrastructure damage on Kauai and $3.2 million in Maui. There were no reports of fatalities or serious injuries.

A National Weather Service Honolulu Damage Survey team confirmed a waterspout moved ashore as an EF0 tornado in Lanikai and tracked southwest, impacting portions of the Enchanted Lakes subdivision in Kailua on Oahu. Several roofs were damaged or destroyed, trees were downed, road signs were mangled, and power lines were snapped.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 13:55 UTC and running to 19:53 UTC.

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 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.

The Molokai radar (PHMO), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:10 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in HawaiiEvery tornado in Hawaii since 1950Warnings in force in Hawaii nowThe forecast where you are

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.