Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 2010

EF0 tornado, Paullina Muni Arpt, Iowa, June 22, 2010

Name: EF0 tornado, Paullina Muni Arpt, Iowa, June 22, 2010
Start: 2010-06-23T04:25:00.000Z
End: 2010-06-23T04:26:00.000Z
Location: Paullina Muni Arpt, Iowa

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across O'Brien County on June 22, 2010, touching down at 11:25 PM CDT and reaching 50 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: June 22, 2010
Touchdown: 11:25 PM CDT (04:25 UTC)
Lifted: 11:26 PM CDT (04:26 UTC)
On the ground: 1 minutes
Path length: 0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width: 50 yards (46 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: O'Brien County
Touchdown point: 42.940, -95.690
Lift-off point: 42.941, -95.689
Record number: 1006222225-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms produced a variety of severe weather in northwest Iowa from late evening on June 22nd to after midnight on June 23rd. The events included hail, damaging winds, tornadoes, and flash flooding.

A brief tornado caused no reported damage. The tornado was also observed by a trained spotter.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 22, 9:05 PM CDT, 2 hours 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 22, 9:05 PM CDT, 2 hours 20 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR SOUTHEAST SD/SOUTHWEST MN/NORTHWEST IA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
905 PM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

.DISCUSSION...

WARM FRONT PRESENTLY SITUATED THROUGH SOUTHEASTERN NEBRASKA THROUGH
CENTRAL IOWA...LYING JUST TO THE SOUTHEAST OF OUR CWA. LOW
PRESSURE/SECONDARY BOUNDARY LOCATED THROUGH CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA
WITH A COMPLEX OF THUNDERSTORMS...SOME SEVERE...EXTENDING FROM NORTH
CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA INTO NORTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA AT THIS TIME...AND
BEARING DOWN ON OUR CWA. INCREASED POPS OVER PORTIONS OF OUR AREA
WITH THE MCS MOST LIKELY TRACKING EASTWARD ACROSS OUR CWA OVERNIGHT.
OTHERWISE...ONLY MINOR EDITS MADE DUE TO IMPENDING SEVERE WEATHER.
UPDATES OUT.

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION...

BATCH OF ELEVATED CONVECTION NEAR KBBW AT 20Z LIFTING TO NORTHEAST
AND SHOULD BE LOCATED NEAR KSUX AFTER 22Z.  18Z KOMA SOUNDING
INDICATED THIS AREA STILL HAS A FAIRLY STRONG CAP...AND HAVE REDUCED
POPS THIS EVENING DOWN TO 30 PERCENT ACROSS NORTHWEST IOWA.  THIS IS
IN CONTRAST TO THE HRRR MODEL...WHICH SUGGEST CONVECTION MOVING INTO
THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE FORECAST AREA AT 20Z. SUBTLE WARM FRONT
LIFTING NORTH ACROSS NEBRASKA...LOCATED SOMEWHERE NEAR KOFK-KDNS
WITH GUSTY SOUTHEAST WINDS INCREASING SOUTH OF THE FRONT. IF A STORM
IS ABLE TO BECOME SURFACE BASED ACROSS NORTHWEST IOWA THIS
EVENING...STEEP LAPSE RATE ALOFT SHOULD ALLOW THE STORMS TO BECOME
SEVERE FAIRLY RAPIDLY PRODUCING LARGE HAIL AND THE POTENTIAL FOR A
TORNADO OR TWO.

FURTHER OFF TO THE WEST...CU FIELD DEVELOPING FROM KVTN TO KATY
ALONG STATIONARY FRONT. AS UPPER LEVEL WAVE MOVING OUT OF THE
PANHANDLE OF NEBRASKA LIFTS TO THE NORTHEAST...THIS SHOULD PROVIDE
SUFFICIENT LIFT TO CAUSE STORMS TO DEVELOP ACROSS CENTRAL NEBRASKA
INTO CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA IN THE 00-02Z TIME FRAME.  THESE STORMS
ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP INTO A WELL DEVELOPED TRAILING STRATIFORM
SQUALL LINE...WITH A STRONG POTENTIAL FOR DAMAGING WINDS. AS THE LOW
LEVEL JET INCREASES TO 30-40 KNOTS...EFFECTIVE TOTAL SHEAR IN EXCESS
OF 55 KNOTS...EXPECT STORMS TO CREATE DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70
MPH.  NIGHT SHIFT WILL NEED TO KEEP AN EYE ON POTENTIAL OF A WAKE
LOW DEVELOPING ON THE BACK EDGE OF SQUALL LINE. /BT

STRONG SPRINGLIKE UPR WAVE MOVES EWD OVER CWA WED...AND MODELS STILL
SHOW LINGERING SHRA MOVG OVER MAINLY NERN HLF CWA IN THE MRNG...WITH
A SLIGHT CHC OF INSTABLITY -TSRA IN THE AFTN. THIS WAVE DRAWS IN
RELATIVELY COOLER AND GRADUALLY DRIER AIR WITH BRISK NWLY FLOW DURG
DAY. PLEASANT HIGH PRES SETTLES SEWD OVER CWA WED NGT AND THU MRNG
WITH DECENT RADIATIONAL COOLING. WILL BE A NICE BREAK FROM AIR
CONDITIONING FOR WED THRU THU NGT BEFORE SLY FLOW OF WARMER AND MORE
HUMID AIR MOVES BACK IN FOR FRI WITH STG SLY FLOW. APPEARS TO BE
ENUF MID LVL INSTABILITY WITH RETURN FLOW TO KEEP IN CHCS OF TSTMS
DVLPG OVER NWRN HLF CWA LATER THU NGT...MOVG THRU NRN CWA FRI MRNG
BEFORE CAP TAKES OVER. THEN A DECENT WAVE MOVES EWD OVER NRN PLAINS
THIS WEEKEND BRINGING CHCS OF TSTMS NRN CWA FRI NGT INTO SAT...AND
OVER ERN CWA SAT NGT WITH CDFNT...PROBABLY A LIT SLOWER THAN MODELS.
THEN SUN THRU TUES SHOULD FINALLY BE ON THE DRY AND WARM SIDE WITH
BUILDING UPR HIGH BUT WITH INCRG HUMIDITY WITH CORN EVAPORATION./
RYRHOLM

&&

.AVIATION...

THUNDERSTORM CHANCES WILL INCREASE THROUGH THE EVENING...AS STORMS
DEVELOP ACROSS CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA. THESE
STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO EVOLVE INTO A SQUALL LINE AND MOVE THROUGH
OVERNIGHT. SOME STORMS MAY BE SEVERE TONIGHT...PRODUCING 60 KT OR
GREATER WINDS AND HEAVY RAINFALL. BEST CHANCES FOR STRONG DAMAGING
WIND APPEARS TO BE ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 90...AFFECTING BOTH
THE KFSD AND KSUX TERMINALS BETWEEN 05 AND 10Z.

&&

.FSD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...

IA...FLASH FLOOD WATCH UNTIL 7 AM CDT WEDNESDAY FOR IAZ001>003-
     012>014-020>022-031-032.

MN...NONE.
NE...FLASH FLOOD WATCH UNTIL 7 AM CDT WEDNESDAY FOR NEZ013-014.

SD...FLASH FLOOD WATCH UNTIL 7 AM CDT WEDNESDAY FOR SDZ050-057>071.

&&

Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 22, 11:21 AM CDT, 12 hours 4 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
1121 AM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

SDZ038>040-050-052>071-MNZ071-072-080-081-089-090-097-098-
IAZ001>003-012>014-020>022-031-032-NEZ013-014-231200-
AURORA-BEADLE-BON HOMME-BROOKINGS-BRULE-BUENA VISTA IA-
CHARLES MIX-CHEROKEE IA-CLAY-CLAY IA-COTTONWOOD MN-DAKOTA NE-
DAVISON-DICKINSON IA-DIXON NE-DOUGLAS-GREGORY-HANSON-HUTCHINSON-
IDA IA-JACKSON MN-JERAULD-KINGSBURY-LAKE-LINCOLN-LINCOLN MN-
LYON IA-LYON MN-MCCOOK-MINER-MINNEHAHA-MOODY-MURRAY MN-NOBLES MN-
OBRIEN IA-OSCEOLA IA-PIPESTONE MN-PLYMOUTH IA-ROCK MN-SANBORN-
SIOUX IA-TURNER-UNION-WOODBURY IA-YANKTON-
1121 AM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA...
SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...NORTHWEST IOWA...AND NORTHEAST NEBRASKA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THUNDERSTORMS...
BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO THE EARLY EVENING...A FEW
THUNDERSTORMS COULD DEVELOP OVER NORTHWEST IOWA AND FAR SOUTHEAST
SOUTH DAKOTA IN A VERY UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT. IF THE STORMS CAN
DEVELOP...HAIL TO THE SIZE OF BASEBALLS AS WELL AS TORNADOES WILL
BE A THREAT. THE MAIN THREAT FOR THESE STORMS WILL BE SOUTH OF A
VERMILLION TO SPENCER IOWA LINE.

TONIGHT...MAINLY AFTER 9 PM CDT...A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS IS
EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AND MOVE INTO THE AREA. WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH
AND HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE THE MAIN THREATS WITH THESE STORMS.
THE MAIN THREAT WILL BE WEST OF INTERSTATE 29 AND SOUTH OF
HIGHWAY 34 BEFORE MIDNIGHT AND ALONG AND EAST OF INTERSTATES 29
AND 90 AFTER MIDNIGHT.

FLOODING...
AN AREA OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS IS EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH THE
AREA TONIGHT...WITH HEAVY RAIN A POSSIBILITY. AREAS ALONG AND
SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 90 IN SOUTHEASTERN SOUTH DAKOTA INTO
NORTHWEST IOWA WILL SEE THE THREAT FOR ONE TO THREE INCHES OF
RAIN...ESPECIALLY IF A FEW AFTERNOON THUNDERSTORMS CAN
DEVELOP...WHICH WOULD EXACERBATE THE PROBLEMS. A FLASH FLOOD
WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THIS AREA THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING.

FLOODING IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS ALONG
PARTS OF THE BIG SIOUX AND VERMILLION RIVERS IN SOUTHEAST SOUTH
DAKOTA...THOUGH RIVER LEVELS ARE SLOWLY FALLING IN MANY AREAS.
THE JAMES RIVER WILL REMAIN IN FLOOD FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.
AREAL FLOODING OF SMALL STREAMS AND CREEKS ALSO CONTINUES IN
SOUTH CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA BETWEEN THE JAMES RIVER AND MISSOURI
RIVER...RESULTING IN NUMEROUS ROAD CLOSURES IN RURAL AREAS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

 SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE POSSIBLE AFTER 5 PM ACROSS NORTHWEST
IOWA AND WEST OF THE JAMES RIVER VALLEY AFTER 5 PM...AND LIKELY
ACROSS THE AREA AFTER 9 PM.

&&

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SIOUXFALLS. THIS INCLUDES THE GRAPHICAL HAZARDOUS
WEATHER OUTLOOK.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 22, 11:06 PM CDT, 19 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
1106 PM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1102 PM     FUNNEL CLOUD     2 SW MARCUS             42.81N 95.84W
06/22/2010                   CHEROKEE           IA   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

LAFLIN

Local storm report, Jun 22, 11:08 PM CDT, 17 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
1108 PM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1102 PM     TORNADO          3 S MARCUS              42.78N 95.81W
06/22/2010                   CHEROKEE           IA   TRAINED SPOTTER

            POSSIBLE TORNADO ON THE GROUND

&&

LAFLIN

Local storm report, Jun 22, 11:19 PM CDT, 6 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
1119 PM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1115 PM     TORNADO          1 E MARCUS              42.82N 95.79W
06/22/2010                   CHEROKEE           IA   AMATEUR RADIO

            TORNADO ON GROUND

&&

LAFLIN

Local storm report, Jun 22, 11:23 PM CDT, 2 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
1123 PM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1110 PM     TORNADO          1 S MARCUS              42.81N 95.81W
06/22/2010                   CHEROKEE           IA   TRAINED SPOTTER

            TORNADO ON THE GROUND

&&

LAFLIN

Local storm report, Jun 22, 11:24 PM CDT, 1 minute before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
1124 PM CDT TUE JUN 22 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1053 PM     HAIL             2 SW MARCUS             42.80N 95.84W
06/22/2010  E1.25 INCH       CHEROKEE           IA   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

TRM

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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

4.4 hours before the tornado, 189 km from the path. June 23, 2010.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 4767 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -7 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 6788 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1098 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 220 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 4.7
Supercell composite: 27.5
0-3 km lapse rate: 6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cherokee (CKP), 26 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 Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:25 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 track Every 2010 tornado in Iowa Every tornado in Iowa since 1950 Warnings in force in Iowa now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 22, 2010

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 22	4:30 PM EDT	EF0	Lebanon, PA	0.1	50	$10,000
June 22	4:42 PM MDT	EF0	Banner, NE	0.5	30
June 22	5:06 PM MDT	EF0	Banner, NE	0.5	30
June 22	5:18 PM MDT	EF0	Banner, NE	0.5	30
June 22	5:38 PM MDT	EF0	Weston, WY	0.0	30
June 22	6:20 PM MDT	EF0	Sheridan, NE	0.0	10
June 22	8:30 PM EDT	EF1	Bradford, PA	1.0	250	$100,000
June 22	9:12 PM CDT	EF0	Humboldt, IA	0.9	35
June 22	9:15 PM CDT	EF0	Sac, IA	0.8	30
June 22	10:25 PM CDT	EF0	Wright, IA	2.0	50
June 22	11:10 PM CDT	EF0	Cherokee, IA	1.2	50

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.