Tornadoes · United States · Montana · 2016

EF0 tornado, Baker Arpt, Montana, July 10, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Fallon County on July 10, 2016, touching down at 3:10 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
3:10 PM MDT (21:10 UTC)
Lifted
3:30 PM MDT (21:30 UTC)
On the ground
20 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Fallon County
Touchdown point
46.360, -104.230
Lift-off point
46.360, -104.230
Record number
1607101510-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Another strong upper level disturbance combined with unstable conditions at the surface resulted in a round of severe thunderstorms across mainly Fallon County in the Billings Forecast Area during the afternoon of the 6th. Large hail and funnel clouds along with multiple small spin-up tornadoes were reported with these thunderstorms.

Multiple small spin-up tornadoes were observed.

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

The warnings

22 minutes of warning. NWS BYZ issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:48 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:51 UTC and running to 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:33 UTC04:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ
19:51 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchBYZ
20:06 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ
20:38 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ
20:48 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningBYZ
21:31 UTC22:05 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:12 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

9.2 hours before the tornado, 273 km from the path. July 10, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Glasgow Intl Airport, 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 -93437, lifted condensation level 1594 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, Glasgow Intl Airport, 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 35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
-93437 J/kg
Surface CAPE
199 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1594 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
31 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.8 hours after it, 273 km from the path. July 11, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Glasgow Intl Airport, 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 -82308, lifted condensation level 841 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, Glasgow Intl Airport, 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 109 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
-82308 J/kg
Surface CAPE
112 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
841 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:30 UTCHAIL 1.757 S PlevnaFallon, MTTREES ARE STRIPPED OF THEIR LEAVES AND BROKEN WINDOWS IN HOME.
20:38 UTCHAIL 1.753 Sse PlevnaFallon, MT
21:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGBakerFallon, MTWIND-DRIVEN GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL BROKE OUT WINDOWS ON WEST SIDE OF NUMEROUS HOMES IN TOWN.
21:00 UTCHAIL 1.75BakerFallon, MT
21:08 UTCTSTM WND GST 652 Sw BakerFallon, MT
21:08 UTCHAIL 1.252 Sw BakerFallon, MT
21:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 Sse BakerFallon, MT
21:10 UTCHAIL 26 Ne BakerFallon, MTBROKEN SKYLIGHT.
21:17 UTCTSTM WND GST 6213 Ne BakerFallon, MT
21:17 UTCHAIL 0.2510 Nne EkalakaCarter, MT
21:17 UTCHAIL 1BakerFallon, MT
21:30 UTCHAIL 1.511 Ne BakerFallon, MT
21:54 UTCHAIL 125 Sse BakerFallon, MT
22:14 UTCHAIL 26 Ne BakerFallon, MTBROKEN SKYLIGHT.

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 1012:30 PM MDTEF0Beaverhead, MT0.050
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.