Tornadoes · United States · Nevada · 1995

F0 tornado, Lyon County, Nevada, June 5, 1995

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Lyon County on June 5, 1995, touching down at 2:04 PM PDT and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

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

  6. F5261 to 318 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
F0
Date
June 5, 1995
Touchdown
2:04 PM PDT (21:04 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Lyon County
Touchdown point
39.420, -119.220
Record number
669

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:04 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningREV

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 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.

Reno, NV (KREV), 12:00Z

9.1 hours before the tornado, 89 km from the path. June 5, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Reno, NV at 12:00Z on 1995-06-05Temperature 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 -57898, lifted condensation level 2831 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Reno, NV at 12:00Z on 1995-06-05The 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 159 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-57898 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2831 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
318 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Reno, NV (KREV), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 89 km from the path. June 6, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Reno, NV at 00:00Z on 1995-06-06Temperature 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 -63865, lifted condensation level 2129 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Reno, NV at 00:00Z on 1995-06-06The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-63865 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2129 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fallon Nas (NFL), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:45 UTC300° 24 kt351013.5
20:00 UTC5931290° 22 kt381013.5
21:00 UTC5331330° 22 kt341015.9
22:00 UTC5626330° 22 kt331016.6
23:00 UTC5824320° 17 kt271016.3

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in NevadaEvery tornado in Nevada since 1950Warnings in force in Nevada nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 5, 1995

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 53:38 AM EDTF0Duval, FL3.010$50,000 to $500,000
June 54:20 AM EDTF1Camden, GA0.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 54:00 AM CDTF1Camden, FL to GA4.013$50,000 to $500,000
June 57:30 AM EDTF1Glynn, GA0.733$5,000 to $50,000
June 511:05 AM EDTF1Beaufort, SC3.040$50,000 to $500,000
June 53:43 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.220
June 53:55 PM CDTF0Floyd, TX0.320$5,000 to $50,000
June 54:05 PM CDTF2Floyd, TX13.0350$50,000 to $500,000
June 54:20 PM CDTF0Story, IA5.020$5,000 to $50,000
June 55:05 PM CDTF0Dickens, TX0.220
June 55:37 PM CDTF0Dickens, TX0.220
June 56:08 PM CDTF0Haskell, TX0.110
June 55:20 PM MDTF0Clark, ID0.110$500 to $5,000
June 56:42 PM CDTF0Haskell, TX0.110
June 56:52 PM CDTF0Stonewall, TX0.220
June 57:04 PM CDTF0Kent, TX0.220
June 57:15 PM CDTF0Garfield, OK0.123
June 58:12 PM CDTF0Garfield, OK0.123
June 58:39 PM MDTF0Blaine, ID0.110

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.