F0 tornado, George, Iowa, June 12, 2001

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

June 12, 2001

Touchdown

9:12 PM CDT (02:12 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lyon County

Touchdown point

43.400, -96.000

Lift-off point

43.400, -96.000

Record number

217

A brief tornado caused no reported damage or injuries.

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

45 minutes of warning. NWS FSD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:27 UTC, 45 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

NWS Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 12, 3:55 PM CDT, 5 hours 17 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR SOUTHEAST SD/SOUTHWEST MN/NORTHWEST IA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
355 PM CDT TUE JUN 12 2001

FAIRLY STRONG MID LVL SHORTWV MOVG THRU CWA ATTM...INTERACTING WITH
POTENT WMFNT WHICH HAS MOVED NWD TOWARD SIOUX CITY. THIS WMFNT WL
CONT TO LIFT NWD AS THE NIGHT PROGESSES...MAINLY OVR THE ERN HALF OF
THE CWA...AND SOME OVERNIGHT LOWS OVER THE EAST MAY NOT BE MUCH
COLDER THAN THEIR CRNT READINGS RIGHT NOW. AS FAR AS CONVECTION
CHANCES...AM WONDERING WHAT MAY OR MAY NOT DVLP BEHIND THE CRNT LINE
OF CONVECTION MOVG THRU THE I 90 CORRIDOR. SO FAR...NO ECHOES TO
REPORT ON THE KOAX AND KLNX 88D'S...AND IN FACT CONDITIONS HAVE
CLOUDED UP AGAIN IN NE NEB. CRNT THOUGHTS NOW...ARE THAT EVENING
CONVECTION MAY HAVE TROUBLE BREAKING ALONG THE WMFNT DUE TO A LACK
OF MID LVL SUPPORT TO KICK IT OFF...HOWEVER OF COURSE...THIS IS VERY
TRICKY. CAP STRENGHTENS OVR MUCH OF THE CWA VERY LATE TNGT...AS
700MB LVL DRAMATICALLY WM'S AHD OF CDFNT TO THE WEST.
THEREFORE...NOT REAL CONFIDENT THAT THE WRN HIGH PLAINS CONVECTION
WL MOVE MUCH FURTHER EAST THAN THE JAMES VALLEY OR THE FAR NRN TIER
OF CWA...AS IT LIFTS E TO NEWD WITH THE MID LVL FLOW AND OVER THE
CAP. SO THEREFORE WORDED THE ZONES ACCORDINGLY.

CDFNT MOVES INTO CWA ON WEDNESDAY...AND USED THE AVN/ETA SOLN FOR
TIMING. STRONG CAP EXISTS AHD OF THE BNDRY...SO PCPN LOOKS TO BE
RIGHT ALONG AND BEHIND THE FNT. COULD ACTUALLY GET QUITE WM IN THE
ERN HALF...WITH STOUT SRLY WINDS AND PARTLY SUNNY SKIES. THIS IS THE
AREA TO BE MOST CONCERNED ABOUT FOR SVR CHCS...FM ARND YANKTON TO
JACKSON MN. JAMES VALLEY MAY NOT GET MUCH OUT OF THE FRONTAL BNDRY
AS THEY ARE TOO FAR BEHIND THE CONVERGENT ZONE. AS THE CAPPING
BREAKS ALONG THE BNDRY...CONVECTION SHOULD FIRE LATE IN THE DAY AND
THRU THE NIGHT IN THE EAST.

THURSDAY LOOKS MUCH COOLER AND SHOWERY OVER MANY LOCATIONS...WRAP
ARND BEHIND THE SYSTEM. STILL A SMALL SHORTWV PROGGED ON SUNDAY...
BUT AGREE WITH THE PMDEPD THAT THE MRF HGTS LOOK ONCE AGAIN
OVERDONE...SO TRENDED THE TEMPS CLOSER TO NORMAL.

.FSD...NONE
 FUHS

In the hours before

IAZ032-122100-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
331 PM CDT TUE JUN 12 2001

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH CANCELLED FOR IDA COUNTY IN NORTHWEST
IOWA...

THE SEgVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH THAT WAS IN EFFECT FOR IDA COUNTY IN
NORTHWEST IOWA HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
514 PM CDT TUE JUN 12 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0428 PM    OCHEYEDAN                 IA   .75 INCH HAIL
06/12/01   OSCEOLA                        REPORTED BY PUBLIC.

0433 PM    RUSHMORE                  MN   1 INCH HAIL
06/12/01   NOBLES                         REPORTED BY LAW
                                          ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.

0505 PM    1 N LUVERNE               MN   1 INCH HAIL
06/12/01   ROCK                           REPORTED BY LAW
                                          ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.

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.

Sheldon (SHL), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in IowaEvery tornado in Iowa since 1950Warnings in force in Iowa nowThe forecast where you are

35 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.