F0 tornado, Winnett, Montana, June 22, 2002

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 22, 2002

Touchdown

2:30 PM MDT (20:30 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Petroleum County

Touchdown point

46.850, -108.130

Lift-off point

46.850, -108.130

Record number

182

Brief tornado touch down reported by spotter 15 SE Winnett.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 15:45 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 Glasgow, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 22, 1:29 PM MDT, 1 hour 1 minute earlier.

NORTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT
129 PM MDT SAT JUN 22 2002

.SHORT TERM...FOCUS OF SHORT TERM WILL ONCE AGAIN BE ON SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT. DEWPOINTS ACROSS REGION ARE SOLIDLY IN THE
60S...WITH TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MID 80S. THIS IS PRODUCING
VERY HIGH CAPE VALUES. THUNDERSTORMS FIRING OVER SOUTHWEST PORTIONS
OF CWA HAVE EXHIBITED EXPLOSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND SHOULD MOVE INTO AN
AREA OF HIGHER INSTABILITY. LIMITING FACTOR SO FAR TODAY HAS BEEN
LACK OF ANY FORCING. AS SHORT WAVE MOVES CLOSER TO CWA EXPECT
WIDESPREAD THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT. AS PER COORDINATION WITH
SPC...BYZ...AND TFX...EXPECT BEST DEVELOPMENT IN THE SHORT TERM OVER
WESTERN HALF OF CWA. REST OF SHORT TERM LOOKS UNSETTLED AS 700MB LOW
TAKES ITS TIME MOVING INTO THE DAKOTAS ON SUNDAY. LINGERING SHOWERS
OVER THE EAST ON MONDAY. WILL NOT MAKE MUCH IN THE WAY OF CHANGES.

.LONG TERM...MODELS STARTING TO SHOW A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT PATTERN
THAN PREVIOUS RUNS. UPPER LEVEL RIDGE CONTINUES TO DOMINATE THE
WEATHER ON WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. MODELS ARE STARTING TO BREAK DOWN
THE RIDGE A BIT ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. WITH SUCH AN AMPLIFIED RIDGE
IN PLACE BELIEVE THIS TO BE A BIT QUICK. WILL CONTINUE CURRENT TREND
OF WARM AND DRY THROUGH SATURDAY.  POHL

KGGW TBB 058/075 056/083 056/087 87674111
     BBBB 057/089 056/090 056/090 056/090 8700000000
KGDV TBB 058/076 056/083 054/085 87676111
     BBBB 057/089 056/090 056/090 056/090 8700000000

.GGW...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH #453 WESTERN HALF OF CWA UNTIL
01Z...

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT
1046 AM MDT SAT JUN 22 2002

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

0400 AM    8 NE CULBERTSON           MT   1.00 INCH HAIL
06/22/02   ROOSEVELT

0215 AM    10NE LINDSAY              MT   1.00 INCH HAIL
06/22/02   DAWSON

1230 AM    POPLAR                    MT   .75 INCH HAIL
06/22/02   ROOSEVELT

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.

Roundup (RPX), 52 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Billings radar (KBLX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:27 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 2002 tornado in MontanaEvery tornado in Montana since 1950Warnings in force in Montana nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.