Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2000

F0 tornado, Battle Ground, Washington, May 11, 2000

This F0 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Clark County on May 11, 2000, touching down at 4:35 PM PDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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
May 11, 2000
Touchdown
4:35 PM PDT (23:35 UTC)
Path length
0.9 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Clark County
Touchdown point
45.770, -122.520
Lift-off point
45.770, -122.520
Record number
227

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado moved through Battleground. Three houses had minor damage as did a restaurant ( blew away a sign and some metal strips of the awning). A pickup canopy resting on sawhorses was blown about 100 feet. In addition, a section of wooden fence was blown down, and 2 to 4 inch limbs were broken off of a tree. No injuries were reported.

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 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), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. May 11, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2000-05-11Temperature 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 -78665, lifted condensation level 546 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, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2000-05-11The 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 189 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
-78665 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
546 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
189 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
205 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.4 hours after it, 102 km from the path. May 12, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2000-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 6 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 1013 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2000-05-12The 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 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
159 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1013 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Pearson Airpark Vancouver (VUO), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC5329 3 kt1020.7
22:53 UTC5131270° 9 kt1021.3-RA
23:53 UTC5331280° 10 kt1022-RA
00:53 UTC5431250° 11 kt1022.4

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in WashingtonEvery tornado in Washington since 1950Warnings in force in Washington nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 11, 2000

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 114:58 AM CDTF0Hutchinson, SD0.350$10,000
May 116:45 PM CDTF0Grundy, IA0.330
May 117:03 PM CDTF3Black Hawk, IA18.6210125$1.8 million
May 117:55 PM CDTF2Black Hawk, IA3.6120$350,000
May 118:19 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA0.110$2,000
May 118:20 PM CDTF2Black Hawk, IA5.0150$300,000
May 118:20 PM CDTF1Buchanan, IA8.0330$1.5 million
May 118:45 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA5.5220$50,000
May 118:53 PM CDTF0Jefferson, KS1.040$1,000
May 119:27 PM CDTF1Jefferson, KS24.0260$2.7 million
May 1111:25 PM CDTF1Clay, MO4.5350$5.0 million

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.