Tornadoes · United States · Oregon · 2019

EF0 tornado, River Jct, Oregon, September 8, 2019

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Multnomah County on September 8, 2019, touching down at 6:44 PM PDT and reaching 120 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $8,000 of property damage.

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
September 8, 2019
Touchdown
6:44 PM PDT (01:44 UTC)
Lifted
6:46 PM PDT (01:46 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
120 yards (110 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$8,000
Crop damage
$2,000
County
Multnomah County
Touchdown point
45.608, -122.871
Lift-off point
45.609, -122.870
Record number
1909081944-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong thunderstorm moved into the area, and produced an EF-0 Tornado.

An NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-0 tornado with winds of 65 mph, touched down in farmland. This caused damage to the farmland which grew corn and pumpkins. It also damaged barn doors, 19 solar panels, and caused tree 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:46 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningPQR

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.

Salem/Mcnary, OR (KSLE), 00:00Z

1.7 hours before the tornado, 77 km from the path. September 9, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2019-09-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 59 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 681 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, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2019-09-09The 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 104 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
59 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
670 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
681 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
181 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Salem/Mcnary, OR (KSLE), 12:00Z

10.3 hours after it, 77 km from the path. September 9, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2019-09-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 14 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 819 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, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2019-09-09The 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 71 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
14 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
108 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
819 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
71 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Portland,OR radar (KRTX), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:45 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
01:44 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD4 N RockcreekMultnomah, ORSPOTTER REPORTED FUNNEL CLOUD. EXACT LOCATION DERIVED FROM RADAR.
01:44 UTCTORNADO 04 N RockcreekMultnomah, ORNWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF-0 TORNADO WITH WINDS TO 65 MPH. THE TOUCHDOWN OCCURRED IN FARMLAND AND DAMAGED CORN AND PUMPKIN FIELDS, BARN DOORS, 19 SOLAR PANELS, AND CAUSED TREE DAMAGE. PATHLENGTH WAS 800 FEET AND PA
01:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Wnw St. JohnsMultnomah, ORSTRONG THUNDERSTORM BROUGHT GUSTY WINDS AND A POSSIBLE TORNADO TO PLUMPERS PUMPKIN PATCH NEAR CORNELIUS PASS. DAMAGE REPORTED TO SOLAR PANELS...A CORN MAZE...AND A 25 X 40 FT CANOPY TENT. FURTHER INVESTIGATION IS NECESSA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in OregonEvery tornado in Oregon since 1950Warnings in force in Oregon nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 8, 2019

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 85:41 PM MDTEF0Denver, CO0.025
September 85:53 PM MDTEF0Adams, CO0.025

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.