Tornadoes · United States · Montana · 2016

EF0 tornado, Dillon, Montana, July 10, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Beaverhead County on July 10, 2016, touching down at 12:30 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 10, 2016
Touchdown
12:30 PM MDT (18:30 UTC)
Lifted
12:32 PM MDT (18:32 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Beaverhead County
Touchdown point
45.220, -112.650
Lift-off point
45.220, -112.650
Record number
1607101230-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms developed during the early afternoon hours from an unstable airmass over southwest Montana. A thunderstorm produced a small and very short- lived tornado near Dillon.

Members of the public reported a tornado near Dillon. The tornado was short-lived and small.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:23 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.

Great_falls, MT (KTFX), 12:00Z

6.5 hours before the tornado, 295 km from the path. July 10, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Great_falls, MT at 12:00Z on 2016-07-10Temperature 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 -91176, lifted condensation level 1586 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Great_falls, MT at 12:00Z on 2016-07-10The 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 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-91176 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1586 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Great_falls, MT (KTFX), 00:00Z

5.5 hours after it, 295 km from the path. July 11, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Great_falls, MT at 00:00Z on 2016-07-11Temperature 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 -93966, lifted condensation level 1227 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Great_falls, MT at 00:00Z on 2016-07-11The 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 -35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
-93966 J/kg
Surface CAPE
305 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1227 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
5 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Missoula radar (KMSX), 227 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:32 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
18:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 Sse DillonBeaverhead, MTBRIEF FUNNEL CLOUD SIGHTED WEST OF DILLON
18:30 UTCTORNADO3 W DillonBeaverhead, MTKDBM-KBEV RADIO PASSED REPORT FROM PUBLIC OF TORNADO NEAR DILLON LANDFILL. PHOTO PROVIDED.
18:40 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Wsw DillonBeaverhead, MTBEAVERHEAD COUNTY SHERIFF REPORTS MULTIPLE CALLS OF FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR HIGHWAY 278 WEST OF DILLON
19:25 UTCHAIL 0.5DillonBeaverhead, MTRETIRED NWS EMPLOYEE REPORTS MARBLE SIZED HAIL IN THE CITY OF DILLON
19:25 UTCHAIL 14 Sse DillonBeaverhead, MTDELAYED REPORT OF QUARTER-SIZE HAIL. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR.
19:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD10 Wsw Twin BridgesMadison, MTMADISON COUNTY SHERIFF REPORTS FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR TWIN BRIDGES
19:50 UTCHAIL 0.88Twin BridgesMadison, MTSTORM SPOTTER REPORTS HAIL VARYING FROM PEA UP TO NICKEL SIZED IN TWIN BRIDGES
20:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Nw SheridanMadison, MTDELAYED REPORT VIA FACEBOOK. THUNDERSTORM WINDS PICKED UP A CARPORT AND BLEW IT 50 YARDS DAMAGING SEVERAL CARS. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in MontanaEvery tornado in Montana since 1950Warnings in force in Montana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 10, 2016

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 103:10 PM MDTEF0Fallon, MT0.550
July 106:17 PM CDTEF1Jefferson Davis, MS0.8260$110,000

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.