Tornadoes · United States · Nevada · 2015

EF1 tornado, Hawthorne, Nevada, June 5, 2015

This EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Mineral County on June 5, 2015, touching down at 3:15 PM PDT and reaching 40 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 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
June 5, 2015
Touchdown
3:15 PM PDT (22:15 UTC)
Lifted
3:30 PM PDT (22:30 UTC)
On the ground
15 minutes
Path length
1.5 miles (2.5 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Mineral County
Touchdown point
38.528, -118.600
Lift-off point
38.524, -118.628
Record number
1506051615-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Low pressure centered over southern California extended north into western Nevada on the 5th. Relatively moist and unstable conditions brought thunderstorm development in the afternoon. Most thunderstorms were relatively weak, although several thunderstorms over Mineral County were much stronger than the average.

The storm survey was supplemented by a public video of the tornado moving along 5th street in Hawthorne. The tornado was determined to be EF-1 for 0.3 miles on the east side of Hawthorne (near 5th street) and EF-0 elsewhere. Approximately 10 to 15 homes and businesses were severely damaged along with power lines and road signs. One 2 foot diameter tree was blown over onto a mobile home and 2 vehicles were severely damaged. This tornado was associated with a non-supercell thunderstorm.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:07 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningREV
22:14 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:28 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

10.3 hours before the tornado, 121 km from the path. June 5, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Reno, NV at 12:00Z on 2015-06-05Temperature 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 -98939, lifted condensation level 1168 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 2015-06-05The 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 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-98939 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1168 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
2 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Reno, NV (KREV), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 121 km from the path. June 6, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Reno, NV at 00:00Z on 2015-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 2551 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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 2015-06-06The 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 44 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
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32 J/kg
Surface CAPE
127 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2551 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Reno radar (KRGX), 155 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:12 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
22:12 UTCHAIL 1.75HawthorneMineral, NVFROM NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IN HAWTHORNE.
22:15 UTCTORNADOHawthorneMineral, NVPOSSIBLE TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN HAWTHORNE NEVADA. THREE HOMES AND FIVE BUSINESSES SEVERELY DAMAGED. REPORTED BY MINERAL COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE.
22:24 UTCHAIL 11 Se Hawthorne IndustriMineral, NV
22:30 UTCTORNADO 1HawthorneMineral, NVTORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN HAWTHORNE NEVADA. SEVERAL HOMES AND FIVE BUSINESSES SEVERELY DAMAGED. REPORTED BY MINERAL COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE.
22:30 UTCTORNADO 1HawthorneMineral, NVA CONFIRMED TORNADO WITH A RATING OF EF-1 MOVED THROUGH HAWTHORNE THIS AFTERNOON. THE DAMAGE SWATH WAS 30-40 YARDS WIDE FOR ABOUT 1.85 MILES.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in NevadaEvery tornado in Nevada since 1950Warnings in force in Nevada nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 5, 2015

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 53:24 AM MDTEF2Kit Carson, CO1.5300$30,000
June 51:13 PM MDTEF1Elbert, CO0.650
June 54:54 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.1100
June 56:20 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO4.5150
June 56:45 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO2.0150
June 59:24 PM CDTEF0Logan, KS8.6100
June 59:30 PM CDTEF0Logan, KS0.110

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.