Tornadoes · United States · Nevada · 2012

EF0 tornado, Vivian Siding, Nevada, April 13, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Elko County on April 13, 2012, touching down at 4:25 PM PDT 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
April 13, 2012
Touchdown
4:25 PM PDT (23:25 UTC)
Lifted
4:30 PM PDT (23:30 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.9 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Elko County
Touchdown point
40.709, -116.075
Lift-off point
40.709, -116.069
Record number
1204131725-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado was photographed just east of Carlin. No damage was reported.

The tornado was photographed looking west towards Carlin. The exact location is an estimate based on conversations with the person who took the photograph. He said it occurred sometime between 4 pm-5 pm. The EF0 designation was also an estimate as no damage was reported or found.

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 19:52 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.

Elko, NV (KLKN), 12:00Z

11.4 hours before the tornado, 159 km from the path. April 13, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Elko, NV at 12:00Z on 2012-04-13Temperature 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 -87018, lifted condensation level 956 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Elko, NV at 12:00Z on 2012-04-13The 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 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-87018 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
956 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
112 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

Elko, NV (KLKN), 00:00Z

0.6 hours after it, 159 km from the path. April 14, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Elko, NV at 00:00Z on 2012-04-14Temperature 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 -75594, lifted condensation level 1692 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Elko, NV at 00:00Z on 2012-04-14The 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 66 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-75594 J/kg
Surface CAPE
167 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1692 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Elko radar (KLRX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:23 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
23:30 UTCTORNADONne CarlinElko, NVA TORNADO WAS PHOTOGRAPHED JUST EAST OF CARLIN. IT WAS ESTIMATED AS A EF0 AND NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED. THE TIME OF THE REPORT WAS BETWEEN 4-5 PM.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in NevadaEvery tornado in Nevada since 1950Warnings in force in Nevada nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 13, 2012

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 133:59 PM CDTEF1Cleveland, OK6.0600
April 135:24 PM CDTEF0Pottawatomie, OK0.220
April 136:10 PM CDTEF0Jackson, OK0.525
April 136:14 PM CDTEF0Jackson, OK0.525
April 136:30 PM CDTEF0Jackson, OK2.0400
April 137:25 PM CDTEF0Kiowa, OK0.5300
April 137:27 PM CDTEF0Kiowa, OK0.2100
April 137:28 PM CDTEF1Kiowa, OK5.0500
April 137:52 PM CDTEF0Kiowa, OK6.0500
April 138:36 PM CDTEF0Caddo, OK2.050
April 138:42 PM CDTEF0Caddo, OK0.350
April 138:50 PM CDTEF0Caddo, OK4.0100
April 1312:52 AM CDTEF1Canadian, OK2.075

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.