EF0 tornado, Ridgeway to Capitol, Montana, June 28, 2018

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

June 28, 2018

Touchdown

7:44 PM MDT (01:44 UTC)

Lifted

7:50 PM MDT (01:50 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Carter County

Touchdown point

45.350, -104.207

Lift-off point

45.357, -104.132

Record number

1806281944-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS UNR, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

During the late afternoon and evening hours on June 28th, severe weather broke out across much of the Billings Forecast Area. The most severe weather occurred across southeast Montana, mainly Carter County where golf ball size and larger hail, straight line winds 70-80 mph and four tornadoes were reported. ||Around 7:17 PM, the first tornado was spotted crossing SR 323 in Carter County about 12 miles north of Albion in the Finger Butte Area. This tornado was spotted by a rancher about a mile to the south. His property sustained straight line wind damage on the south side of the storm, including trees uprooted, a barn roof blown off, a shed destroyed, and a horse trailer flipped over. This wind damage was consistent with 70-80 mph winds. This tornado left no trace along SR 323 and moved through open terrain before lifting. This tornado has been assigned a rating of EF-0 since no damage markers could be observed. Storm chasers following this storm as it pushed east through rural areas of Carter County noticed two additional brief tornado touchdowns. These tornadoes were in extremely rural and open areas with no road access to do damage surveys. ||At approximately 8:06 PM, another tornado touched down just east of Camp Crook Road 4 miles south of Capitol, MT. In its initial phases, this tornado skipped along the ground, as confirmed by chaser video, producing sporadic snapped trees and downed limbs consistent with winds 80-90 mph (EF-0 to EF-1). ||Damage survey and eye witness accounts confirm the tornado initially moved north-north-east along the Little Missouri River. As it approached the river it intensified to 120 mph (EF-2) producing an increasingly wider swath of snapped trees several hundred yards wide. The tornado started to turn more to the east at this time, moving on a northeasterly track as it crossed the Little Missouri and moved across the Montana/South Dakota border.||The tornadoes stayed mostly over rural areas producing limited damage. The damage that has been surveyed has ranged from EF-0 to EF-3. The most significant damage appears to have occurred with a tornado that touched down south of Capitol, Montana and moved into South Dakota. Damaged observed just across the border in South Dakota is consistent with an EF-3 tornado rating, with winds estimated at 136 mph. Damage observed includes one home destroyed, heavy hay bales moved, along with the debarking of some trees.

The tornado was on the ground for 10 miles. No damage was visible from the tornado. However, EF-0 microburst damage was observed to the south of the tornado due to the rear flank downdraft; 2 trees uprooted, barn roof blown off, shed destroyed, and a horse trailer flipped over.

The tornado was on the ground across rural areas for four miles. There were no reports of damage with this tornado.

The tornado briefly touched down and reports indicated there was anti-cyclonic rotation. There were no reports of damage.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS BYZ issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:27 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:42 UTC and running to 04:57 UTC.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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 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.

Buffalo (2WX), 56 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 173 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:43 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in MontanaEvery tornado in Montana since 1950Warnings in force in Montana nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.