Tornadoes · United States · Montana · 2005

F0 tornado, Turner, Montana, June 20, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Blaine County on June 20, 2005, touching down at 8:10 PM MDT and reaching 5 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 20, 2005
Touchdown
8:10 PM MDT (02:10 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
5 yards (5 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Blaine County
Touchdown point
48.730, -108.580
Lift-off point
48.730, -108.580
Record number
196

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado toched down briefly at Turner 12SW. No damage was reported. The storm also produced .75 inch diameter hail.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS TFX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:59 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:36 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:56 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTFX
01:59 UTC02:36 UTCTornado WarningTFX

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:42 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.

Glasgow Intl Airport, MT (KGGW), 00:00Z

2.2 hours before the tornado, 157 km from the path. June 21, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 00:00Z on 2005-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 317 joules per kilogram, CIN -89, lifted condensation level 2366 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, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 00:00Z on 2005-06-21The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
317 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89 J/kg
Surface CAPE
736 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2366 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
157 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Glasgow Intl Airport, MT (KGGW), 12:00Z

9.8 hours after it, 157 km from the path. June 21, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 12:00Z on 2005-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1278 joules per kilogram, CIN -264, lifted condensation level 1151 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, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 12:00Z on 2005-06-21The 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 106 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
1278 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-264 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1151 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Glasgow radar (KGGW), 155 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:11 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:58 UTCHAIL 0.887 W Black Coulee ReservBlaine, MT
02:01 UTCHAIL 0.887 W Black Coulee ReservBlaine, MT
02:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDBlack Coulee ReservoirBlaine, MTFUNNEL CLOUD LOCATED 200-300 FEET ABOVE GROUND. PENNY SIZE HAIL DID OCCUR WITH THIS STORM...AT THIS LOCATION.
02:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDBlack Coulee ReservoirBlaine, MTFUNNEL LOCATED 200-300 FEET ABOVE GROUND...WITH PENNY SIZE HAIL.
02:25 UTCHAIL 1.758 N DodsonPhillips, MTVEHICLE DAMAGE
02:50 UTCHAIL 1.7512 Ne DodsonPhillips, MT
03:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD7 N WagnerPhillips, MTTHE FUNNEL CLOUD DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE REACHING THE GROUND. GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in MontanaEvery tornado in Montana since 1950Warnings in force in Montana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 20, 2005

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 208:10 AM CDTF1Ransom, ND1.0100
June 209:44 AM CDTF1Richland, ND7.0100
June 2010:40 AM CDTF1Grant, MN0.2100
June 2010:44 AM CDTF2Otter Tail, MN4.0200
June 2011:14 AM CDTF2Otter Tail, MN0.3200
June 203:25 PM CDTF0Rock, MN0.750
June 204:55 PM CDTF0Emmet, IA0.230

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.