Tornadoes · United States · Idaho · 2022
EF0 tornado, Givens Hot Spgs, Idaho, May 27, 2022
This EF0 tornado ran 3.8 miles across Owyhee County on May 27, 2022, touching down at 5:00 PM MDT and reaching 35 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 27, 2022
- Touchdown
- 5:00 PM MDT (23:00 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:15 PM MDT (23:15 UTC)
- On the ground
- 15 minutes
- Path length
- 3.8 miles (6.1 km)
- Path width
- 35 yards (32 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Owyhee County
- Touchdown point
- 43.412, -116.756
- Lift-off point
- 43.431, -116.686
- Record number
- 2205271700-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An upper level low pressure system brought convective storms on Friday, especially in southeast Oregon and near the Idaho-Oregon border.
The employee tracked a tornado for a few minutes and captured video evidence of circulation to the ground with debris and dust rotating around a column of air. The employee estimated tornado wind speed to be around 65-75 mph. After the event, they found fragile brush laying flat in one direction.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Nampa Mun (MAN), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Boise radar (KCBX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:02 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in IdahoEvery tornado in Idaho since 1950Warnings in force in Idaho nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 27, 2022
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 27 | 7:24 AM EDT | EF2 | Bedford, VA | 6.3 | 330 | 3 | $925,000 | |
| May 27 | 9:00 AM EDT | EF1 | Charlotte, VA | 0.1 | 60 | $50,000 | ||
| May 27 | 11:45 AM EDT | EF0 | Franklin, PA | 0.3 | 185 | $70,000 | ||
| May 27 | 12:22 PM EDT | EF0 | Montgomery, MD | 0.2 | 125 | $200,000 | ||
| May 27 | 12:42 PM EDT | EF0 | Cumberland, PA | 0.1 | 125 | $4,000 | ||
| May 27 | 2:11 PM EDT | EF1 | Lancaster, PA | 3.0 | 130 | 3 | $325,000 | |
| May 27 | 4:57 PM EDT | EF0 | Horry, SC | 1.0 | 15 | |||
| May 27 | 5:32 PM EDT | EF0 | Horry, SC | 1.0 | 20 | |||
| May 27 | 6:22 PM EDT | EF0 | Louisa, VA | 11.1 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| May 27 | 7:51 PM EDT | EF1 | Louisa, VA | 2.6 | 450 | $100,000 | ||
| May 27 | 8:32 PM EDT | EF1 | Charles, MD | 4.1 | 100 | $110,000 | ||
| May 27 | 6:56 PM MDT | Unrated | Perkins, NE | 0.0 | 10 |
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.