Tornadoes · United States · Montana · 2013

EF0 tornado, Melstone, Montana, July 8, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Musselshell County on July 8, 2013, touching down at 4:48 PM MDT 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. 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.

  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
EF0
Date
July 8, 2013
Touchdown
4:48 PM MDT (22:48 UTC)
Lifted
4:58 PM MDT (22:58 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Musselshell County
Touchdown point
46.610, -107.870
Lift-off point
46.610, -107.870
Record number
1307081648-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A severe thunderstorm, that originated in the Lewistown area, which had a history of damaging wind and hail, produced a couple of weak tornadoes in the Melstone and Miles City areas during the late afternoon and early evening hours of July 8th.

A trained spotter reported a brief tornado about 1 mile north of Melstone; while the town of Melstone experienced outflow winds in excess of 60 mph with minor tree and structural damage. A survey team estimated the tornadic winds to be 65 to 85 mph. No damage was reported directly from the tornado as the tornado remained over open areas.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:05 UTC and running to 00:51 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:05 UTC00:51 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchBYZ
22:07 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ
22:17 UTC01:52 UTCFlash Flood WarningBYZ
22:28 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ
23:03 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ
23:05 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 203 km from the path. July 8, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 12:00Z on 2013-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 467 joules per kilogram, CIN -141, lifted condensation level 1005 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2013-07-08The 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 -26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
467 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-141 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1005 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.2 hours after it, 203 km from the path. July 9, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 00:00Z on 2013-07-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -84415, lifted condensation level 1889 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2013-07-09The 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 -14 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84415 J/kg
Surface CAPE
464 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1889 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-14 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
62 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Billings radar (KBLX), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:46 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
22:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 608 Ssw FlatwillowMusselshell, MT
22:15 UTCHAIL 1.758 Ssw FlatwillowMusselshell, MT
22:30 UTCHAIL 2.753 W DelphiaMusselshell, MT
22:48 UTCTORNADO 01 N MelstoneMusselshell, MTCONFIRMED A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO BASED ON WCM CONVERSATION WITH COUNTY OFFICAL WHO REPORTED THE TORNADO. NO DAMAGE FOUND SINCE IT TRACKED OVER RURAL PORTIONS OF THE COUNTY. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
22:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 606 Se MelstoneRosebud, MT
23:10 UTCHAIL 2.753 W DelphiaMusselshell, MT
23:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 706 E MelstoneRosebud, MTALSO DIME SIZED HAIL.
23:24 UTCTORNADO4 Ssw IngomarRosebud, MTSPOTTER REPORTED A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN RELAYED THROUGH MUSSELSHELL DES.
23:35 UTCHAIL 12 Nw CusterYellowstone, MT
23:38 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Wnw MyersTreasure, MT3 FOOT COTTONWOOD TREE BLOWN OVER. SEVERAL 8 INCH DIAMETER TREE LIMBS BLOWN OFF.
23:40 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Wnw MyersTreasure, MT6 COTTONWOOD TREES UPROOTED. SUBSTANTIAL CROP DAMAGE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in MontanaEvery tornado in Montana since 1950Warnings in force in Montana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 8, 2013

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 86:54 PM MDTEF1Custer, MT0.6100
July 89:02 PM EDTEF0Seneca, OH0.115$75,000

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.