Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2004

F1 tornado, Tenino, Washington, May 27, 2004

This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Thurston County on May 27, 2004, touching down at 3:00 PM PDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 27, 2004
Touchdown
3:00 PM PDT (22:00 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Thurston County
Touchdown point
46.830, -122.930
Lift-off point
46.830, -122.930
Record number
75

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado damaged a barn, some trees, and a nearby apartment.

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

10.0 hours before the tornado, 172 km from the path. May 27, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Quillayute State, WA at 12:00Z on 2004-05-27Temperature 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 -92343, lifted condensation level 557 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, Quillayute State, WA at 12:00Z on 2004-05-27The 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 150 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-92343 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
557 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
208 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.0 hours after it, 172 km from the path. May 28, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Quillayute State, WA at 00:00Z on 2004-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 9 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 531 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, Quillayute State, WA at 00:00Z on 2004-05-28The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
123 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
531 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
50 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

The surface observations

Olympia (OLM), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:03 UTC57.255.4170° 11 kt1007.1-RA
20:10 UTC57.255.4170° 9 kt1007.1
20:28 UTC57.255.4180° 10 kt161007.1-RA BR
20:54 UTC5855170° 11 kt151006.8-RA BR
21:01 UTC57.255.4170° 9 kt1006.4-RA BR
21:25 UTC5955.4180° 8 kt1006.4-RA
21:54 UTC5955180° 9 kt1006.4TS
22:14 UTC57.255.4210° 4 kt1006.8-RA BR
22:54 UTC5854230° 8 kt1007.1
23:54 UTC5752230° 6 kt1007.5

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in WashingtonEvery tornado in Washington since 1950Warnings in force in Washington nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 2004

27 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 272:00 AM EDTF1Pulaski, KY0.31504$300,000
May 271:15 AM CDTF0Crawford, KS0.110
May 272:44 PM CDTF0Daviess, MO2.050
May 272:54 PM CDTF0Grundy, MO0.550
May 273:07 PM CDTF1Nolan, TX2.875$200,000
May 273:11 PM CDTF0Nolan, TX0.120$10,000
May 273:40 PM CDTF0Taylor, TX0.120$10,000
May 273:30 PM PDTF0Clark, WA0.50
May 276:35 PM EDTF0Fayette, OH0.110
May 276:45 PM EDTF1Fayette, OH3.0501$80,000
May 276:30 PM ESTF2Washington, IN25.9150$2.5 million
May 276:40 PM CDTF0Montgomery, MO1.075
May 276:40 PM CDTF1Val Verde, TX4.0100$50,000
May 276:47 PM CDTF0Val Verde, TX0.120
May 277:09 PM CDTF0Val Verde, TX0.120
May 277:19 PM CDTF0Val Verde, TX0.830
May 278:20 PM EDTF1Brown, OH2.0167$100,000
May 277:30 PM CDTF0Saint Charles, MO0.250
May 277:30 PM CDTF0Kinney, TX1.030
May 277:31 PM CDTF0Kinney, TX1.240
May 277:35 PM CDTF0Franklin, MO1.550
May 278:50 PM EDTF2Henry, KY7.83002$2.5 million
May 278:55 PM EDTF1Floyd, IN2.9200$500,000
May 278:10 PM CDTF0Jefferson, MO0.250
May 278:40 PM CDTF0Saint Francois, MO0.240
May 2710:15 PM EDTF3Fayette, KY3.01006$7.5 million
May 2710:32 PM CDTF1Henderson, KY0.250$40,000

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.