Tornadoes · United States · Oregon · 2005

F0 tornado, Summer Lake, Oregon, August 21, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Lake County on August 21, 2005, touching down at 5:05 PM PDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
August 21, 2005
Touchdown
5:05 PM PDT (00:05 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lake County
Touchdown point
42.970, -120.770
Lift-off point
42.970, -120.770
Record number
313

What the Weather Service recorded

Based on the above report, a Tornado Warning was issued for the Christmas Valley area of Lake County at 21/1609 PDT, expiring at 21/1645 PDT. No reports of damage, injuries, or deaths.

Lake County 911 called and relayed a report from a woman in Christmas Valley of several funnel clouds, one of which was touching the ground. The 911 dispatcher passed along her phone number. The woman was called and a tornado was verified. She stated that there were several funnel clouds extending down from a cloud, and one of the funnel clouds was touching the ground with a dust cloud at the point of contact. She estimated the tornado was 3 miles west of Christmas Valley.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:09 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningMFR

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.

Medford/Jackson, OR (KMFR), 00:00Z

0.1 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. August 22, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Medford/Jackson, OR at 00:00Z on 2005-08-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 63 joules per kilogram, CIN -171, lifted condensation level 3190 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, Medford/Jackson, OR at 00:00Z on 2005-08-22The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 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
63 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-171 J/kg
Surface CAPE
307 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3190 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Medford/Jackson, OR (KMFR), 12:00Z

11.9 hours after it, 179 km from the path. August 22, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Medford/Jackson, OR at 12:00Z on 2005-08-22Temperature 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 -88686, lifted condensation level 1412 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Medford/Jackson, OR at 12:00Z on 2005-08-22The 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 11 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
-88686 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1412 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lakeview (Awos) (LKV), 95 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:15 UTC84.237.4190° 4 kt1020.7
22:35 UTC8637.4170° 6 kt1020.3
22:55 UTC8635.6150° 5 kt1020
23:15 UTC8637.4140° 7 kt1019.6
23:35 UTC87.837.4220° 6 kt1019.3
23:55 UTC87.835.650° 13 kt191019
00:35 UTC84.237.4120° 5 kt1019
00:55 UTC82.435.690° 6 kt1019
01:15 UTC84.237.4110° 9 kt1018.6
01:35 UTC82.435.6120° 8 kt1018.6
01:55 UTC82.435.6120° 4 kt1019

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

The radar

The Medford radar (KMAX), 188 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:05 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
23:05 UTCTORNADO30 Ne Silver LakeLake, ORA MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC REPORTED SEVERAL THIN DISTINCT FUNNEL CLOUDS 3 W OF CHRISTMAS VALLEY, ONE OF WHICH WAS TOUCHING THE GROUND WITH A DEBRIS CLOUD.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in OregonEvery tornado in Oregon since 1950Warnings in force in Oregon nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 21, 2005

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 214:50 PM MDTF0El Paso, CO0.150

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.