Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2001

F0 tornado, Seattle, Washington, June 11, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across King County on June 11, 2001, touching down at 3:30 PM PDT. 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
June 11, 2001
Touchdown
3:30 PM PDT (22:30 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
0 yards (0 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
King County
Touchdown point
47.600, -122.520
Lift-off point
47.600, -122.520
Record number
185

What the Weather Service recorded

A very weak tornado tossed a teacher and a few children into the air. No one was injured.

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.

Quillayute State, WA (KUIL), 12:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. June 11, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Quillayute State, WA at 12:00Z on 2001-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 670 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, Quillayute State, WA at 12:00Z on 2001-06-11The 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 -12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
670 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Quillayute State, WA (KUIL), 00:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 153 km from the path. June 12, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Quillayute State, WA at 00:00Z on 2001-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 162 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 797 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, Quillayute State, WA at 00:00Z on 2001-06-12The 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 15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 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
162 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
933 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
797 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Seattle radar (KATX), 66 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:27 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in WashingtonEvery tornado in Washington since 1950Warnings in force in Washington nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 11, 2001

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 114:25 AM CDTF1Hancock, MS1.040$50,000
June 115:25 AM CDTF1Harrison, MS0.370$100,000
June 116:35 AM CDTF0Jackson, MS1.030$10,000
June 117:00 AM CDTF1George, MS10.0752$150,000
June 117:40 AM CDTF0Mobile, AL2.575$20,000
June 113:30 PM EDTF0Duval, FL0.1101$40,000
June 112:40 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.120
June 112:43 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.120
June 112:44 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.125
June 112:48 PM CDTF1Swift, MN0.120
June 112:49 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.120
June 112:55 PM CDTF0Todd, MN0.120
June 113:00 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.525
June 113:06 PM CDTF2Swift, MN8.01507$10 million
June 113:27 PM CDTF1Swift, MN7.050
June 113:33 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.225
June 113:39 PM CDTF1Kandiyohi, MN2.050
June 113:47 PM CDTF1Kandiyohi, MN1.0502
June 113:50 PM CDTF0Kandiyohi, MN0.525
June 114:25 PM CDTF1Meeker, MN0.550
June 116:00 PM CDTF1Scott, MN0.550$50,000
June 116:05 PM CDTF0Covington, AL3.550$10,000
June 116:11 PM CDTF0Buffalo, WI1.550
June 119:00 PM EDTF0Atkinson, GA0.110$4,000
June 119:10 PM EDTF0Union, FL0.110$4,000
June 119:00 PM CDTF0Green Lake, WI0.230$100,000
June 119:13 PM CDTF1Dodge, WI8.075$700,000
June 119:45 PM CDTF1Washington, WI6.375$420,000
June 111:50 AM EDTF1Madison, FL0.31001$200,000

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.