Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2001

F0 tornado, Ocheyedan, Iowa, June 12, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Osceola County on June 12, 2001, touching down at 9:45 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 12, 2001
Touchdown
9:45 PM CDT (02:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Osceola County
Touchdown point
43.420, -95.550
Lift-off point
43.420, -95.550
Record number
220

What the Weather Service recorded

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.

The warnings

34 minutes of warning. NWS FSD issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:11 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:21 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD
22:29 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD
00:47 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD
01:08 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningFSD
01:30 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningFSD
01:34 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD
02:11 UTC02:45 UTCTornado WarningFSD
02:25 UTC04:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFSD
02:43 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WarningFSD
03:29 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningFSD

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 forecast that day

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.

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.

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z

2.8 hours before the tornado, 222 km from the path. June 13, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2001-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1421 joules per kilogram, CIN -44, lifted condensation level 804 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2001-06-13The 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 84 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1421 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-44 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2542 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
804 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
6.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z

9.2 hours after it, 222 km from the path. June 13, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2001-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 5 joules per kilogram, CIN -599, lifted condensation level 1314 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2001-06-13The 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 110 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-599 J/kg
Surface CAPE
22 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1314 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
110 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
207 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 12, 2001

35 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1211:25 AM CDTF0Poweshiek, IA0.225
June 121:27 PM MDTF0Campbell, WY2.025
June 123:30 PM EDTF0Richmond, GA0.250
June 121:30 PM MDTF0Campbell, WY9.025
June 121:50 PM MDTF1Campbell, WY27.025
June 122:35 PM MDTF1Weston, WY20.030
June 123:05 PM MDTF0Niobrara, WY0.230
June 125:35 PM EDTF0Hampton, SC1.030
June 125:40 PM EDTF0Colleton, SC2.040
June 126:30 PM EDTF1Hampton, SC6.075
June 124:50 PM MDTF0Fall River, SD2.0100
June 125:05 PM MDTF0Fall River, SD5.0100
June 127:33 PM EDTF0Bamberg, SC0.130
June 126:45 PM CDTF0Sioux, IA0.150
June 126:05 PM MDTF0Fall River, SD5.0100
June 128:10 PM EDTF0Beaufort, SC1.040
June 127:12 PM CDTF0Minnehaha, SD0.150
June 126:13 PM MDTF0Dawes, NE0.225
June 128:25 PM EDTF0Beaufort, SC1.040
June 127:41 PM CDTF0Minnehaha, SD0.150
June 128:55 PM EDTF0Beaufort, SC0.530
June 128:10 PM CDTF0, SD1.025
June 129:15 PM EDTF0Beaufort, SC1.030
June 128:27 PM CDTF0Hutchinson, SD1.0100
June 129:02 PM CDTF0McCook, SD0.150
June 129:12 PM CDTF0Lyon, IA0.150
June 129:26 PM CDTF0Dickinson, IA0.150
June 129:34 PM CDTF0McCook, SD0.150
June 129:42 PM CDTF0Nolan, TX0.120
June 128:46 PM MDTF0Sheridan, NE2.0440$10,000
June 129:46 PM CDTF0Dickinson, IA0.550
June 129:53 PM CDTF0Nolan, TX0.120
June 1210:05 PM CDTF0Nobles, MN0.150
June 1211:05 PM EDTF0Charleston, SC1.030
June 1210:19 PM CDTF0Minnehaha, SD0.150

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.