Tornadoes · United States · Nevada · 2011

EF0 tornado, (Wmc)Winnemuca Muni, Nevada, April 24, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Humboldt County on April 24, 2011, touching down at 10:55 AM PDT and reaching 25 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
April 24, 2011
Touchdown
10:55 AM PDT (17:55 UTC)
Lifted
11:00 AM PDT (18:00 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Humboldt County
Touchdown point
40.870, -117.850
Lift-off point
40.870, -117.840
Record number
1104241155-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An EF0 tornado touched down in a rural part of southern Humboldt county. No observable damage was found.

A tornado was seen by several people and was photographed. It was visible for about 5 minutes and occurred in a mostly rural area. Eyewitnesses said the tornado skipped as it moved along. An NWS storm survey could find no visible damage.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 15:58 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.

Reno, NV (KREV), 12:00Z

5.9 hours before the tornado, 148 km from the path. April 24, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Reno, NV at 12:00Z on 2011-04-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 22 joules per kilogram, CIN -20, lifted condensation level 1023 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2011-04-24The 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 180 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
22 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Surface CAPE
18 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1023 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
245 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Reno, NV (KREV), 00:00Z

6.1 hours after it, 148 km from the path. April 25, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Reno, NV at 00:00Z on 2011-04-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 1812 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2011-04-25The 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 -53 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 92 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
181 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1812 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
92 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Elko radar (KLRX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:57 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
18:00 UTCTORNADO 010 Ssw WinnemuccaPershing, NVTORNADO TOUCHED DOWN WITHIN A RURAL AREA WITH INTERMITTENT RANCHES AND HOMES IN THE VICINITY OF HERSCHELL ROAD IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY. NWS SURVEY DETERMINED THE TORNADO WAS AN EF0 WITH NO OBSERVABLE DAMAGE.
18:00 UTCTORNADO 010 Sw WinnemuccaHumboldt, NVTORNADO TOUCHED DOWN WITHIN A RURAL AREA WITH INTERMITTENT RANCHES AND HOMES IN THE VICINITY OF HERSCHELL ROAD IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY. NWS SURVEY DETERMINED THE TORNADO WAS AN EF0 WITH NO OBSERVABLE DAMAGE. CORRECTED COORDIN
18:00 UTCTORNADO10 Wsw WinnemuccaHumboldt, NVTORNADO TOUCHED DOWN WITHIN A RURAL AREA WITH INTERMITTENT RANCHES AND HOMES IN THE VICINITY OF HERSCHELL ROAD IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY. NWS SURVEY DETERMINED THE TORNADO WAS AN EF0 WITH NO OBSERVABLE DAMAGE.
19:41 UTCTORNADO19 Ne ImlayPershing, NV2 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS CONFIRMED A SMALL TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN THE GRASS VALLEY AREA IN EXTREME NORTHEASTERN PERSHING COUNTY NEAR HIRSHILL ROAD. THE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FOR APPROXIMATELY 4 MINUTES. NO DAMAGE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in NevadaEvery tornado in Nevada since 1950Warnings in force in Nevada nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 24, 2011

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 243:28 PM CDTEF0Callahan, TX1.230
April 243:55 PM CDTEF0Shackelford, TX0.150
April 244:22 PM CDTEF0Taylor, TX0.150
April 245:04 PM CDTEF0Callahan, TX1.730
April 245:05 PM CDTEF0Pittsburg, OK0.5100$15,000
April 245:15 PM CDTEF0Callahan, TX0.150
April 245:24 PM CDTEF0Callahan, TX6.0500
April 247:03 PM CDTEF0LeFlore, OK0.3150$5,000
April 248:27 PM CDTEF0Coleman, TX0.150
April 2410:54 PM CDTEF1Howard, AR3.475$70,000

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.