F0 tornado, Nampa, Idaho, December 15, 2000

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.

Rating

F0

Date

December 15, 2000

Touchdown

11:45 PM MST (06:45 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Canyon County

Touchdown point

43.580, -116.570

Lift-off point

43.580, -116.570

Record number

617

A strong frontal system moved through southeast Oregon and southwest Idaho during the late evening/early morning hours of December 14th and 15th. A weak tornado formed on the leading edge of the gust front and touched down in a largely rural area of Nampa. A National Weather Service storm survey found evidence that suggested the tornado touched down intermittently over a period of approximately 3 minutes and traveled approximately one mile through a rural area scattered with a few subdivisions. At it's widest, path width was estimated at 30 yards. The tornado was witnessed by a naval officer who described the tornado as a well defined rope-like funnel which was occasionally lighted by exploding transformers and power line arching at the base of the funnel. Damage along the path was confined to shingle damage to a number of homes, a power pole snapped off at it's base and a 3 foot diameter tree uprooted. No injuries occurred with this tornado and damage estimates were not available.

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.

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 Boise radar (KCBX), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:45 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in IdahoEvery tornado in Idaho since 1950Warnings in force in Idaho 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.