Tornadoes · United States · Montana · 2019
EF0 tornado, Zortman, Montana, June 27, 2019
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Phillips County on June 27, 2019, touching down at 7:10 PM MDT and reaching 20 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- June 27, 2019
- Touchdown
- 7:10 PM MDT (01:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:13 PM MDT (01:13 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Phillips County
- Touchdown point
- 47.859, -108.434
- Lift-off point
- 47.859, -108.430
- Record number
- 1906271910-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Favorable winds, plentiful surface moisture, and a very unstable atmosphere all supported the development of many severe thunderstorms, and sustained them through most the evening across much of northeast Montana.
Storm Chaser and NWS storm survey reported a narrow swath of damage crossing US Highway 191. Tree tops and power poles snapped.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:03 UTC and running to 07:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC | 05:51 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | GGW |
| 00:03 UTC | 07:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | GGW |
| 00:22 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GGW |
| 00:53 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GGW |
| 01:13 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | GGW |
| 01:16 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GGW |
| 01:37 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GGW |
| 01:41 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GGW |
| 02:19 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GGW |
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 01:02 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
1.2 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. June 28, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1386 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -59 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1839 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2003 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 76 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 133 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 3.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.2 K/km
Glasgow Intl Airport, MT (KGGW), 12:00Z
10.8 hours after it, 142 km from the path. June 28, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -512 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1247 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 53 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 4 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 64 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The radar
The Glasgow radar (KGGW), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:09 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 11 Ssw Landusky | Phillips, MT | STORM CHASER. |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 9 S Zortman | Phillips, MT | 10 INCH TREE BRANCHES BLOWN OUT OF THE TOPS OF TREES. ESTIMATED WIND GUSTS OVER 70 MPH. |
| 01:13 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Sse Zortman | Phillips, MT | NARROW SWATH OF DAMAGE WITH TREE TOPS AND POWER POLES SNAPPED. |
| 01:18 UTC | TSTM WND GST 74 | 13 S Fort Belknap | Blaine, MT | MESONET STATION FBLM8 FORT BELKNAP RAWS. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ssw Landusky | Phillips, MT | SEVERAL POWER POLES DOWN ON 7 MILE ROAD GOING INTO ZORTMAN OFF OF US 191. NO POWER IN THE AREA. TREES WERE BENDING IN THE WIND WHEN THE STORM PASSED. |
| 01:28 UTC | TSTM WND GST 68 | 11 Ene Zortman | Phillips, MT | MESONET STATION MTMAL MALTA 35S. |
| 01:32 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | 1 Ese Zortman | Phillips, MT | MESONET STATION ALDM8 ZORTMAN 1W. |
| 01:41 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 52 | 18 Nne Roy | Fergus, MT | MESONET STATION ARMM8 ARMELLS CREEK RAWS. |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 8 N Fourchette | Phillips, MT | 6 INCH DIAMETER TREE BRANCHES BROKEN BY THUNDERSTORM WINDS AS THE STORM PASSED. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in MontanaEvery tornado in Montana since 1950Warnings in force in Montana nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 27, 2019
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.