Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2008

EF0 tornado, Inchelium, Washington, April 25, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Ferry County on April 25, 2008, touching down at 2:43 PM PDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
April 25, 2008
Touchdown
2:43 PM PDT (21:43 UTC)
Lifted
2:45 PM PDT (21:45 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Ferry County
Touchdown point
48.503, -118.200
Lift-off point
48.503, -118.200
Record number
0804251543-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief land spout tornado touched down six miles southwest of Kettle Falls, or 14 miles north of Inchelium. This brief tornado resulted from a small convective shower. The tornado damaged the roof of a garage. The path length and width of the tornado are estimated.

A brief tornado touched down six miles southwest of Kettle Falls.

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.

Spokane, WA (KOTX), 12:00Z

9.7 hours before the tornado, 161 km from the path. April 25, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Spokane, WA at 12:00Z on 2008-04-25Temperature 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 -100698, lifted condensation level 1317 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, Spokane, WA at 12:00Z on 2008-04-25The 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 45 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
-100698 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1317 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Spokane, WA (KOTX), 00:00Z

2.3 hours after it, 161 km from the path. April 26, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Spokane, WA at 00:00Z on 2008-04-26Temperature 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 -98592, lifted condensation level 2351 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, Spokane, WA at 00:00Z on 2008-04-26The 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 101 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-98592 J/kg
Surface CAPE
78 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2351 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
125 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

The surface observations

Deer Park (DEW), 83 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC4825 5 kt1023.4
20:53 UTC4925210° 9 kt1023.4
21:53 UTC5123200° 8 kt1023.4
22:53 UTC5125210° 6 kt1023.4

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

The radar

The Spokane radar (KOTX), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:44 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
21:43 UTCTORNADO6 Sw Kettle FallsFerry, WADAMAGE TO THE ROOF OF A GARAGE FROM A SMALL TORNADO REPORTED TO LAW ENFORCMENT BY HOME OWNER WHO WITNESSED THE FUNNEL CLOUD EXTENDING FROM A SMALL CONVECTIVE SHOWER.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in WashingtonEvery tornado in Washington since 1950Warnings in force in Washington nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 2008

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 251:26 AM CDTEF0Cloud, KS0.125
April 251:35 PM CDTEF0Davis, IA0.830$25,000
April 253:08 PM CDTEF1Henry, IA1.320$10,000
April 253:15 PM CDTEF2Muscatine, IA6.5150$200,000
April 255:18 PM CDTEF1Columbia, WI21.175$600,000
April 255:20 PM CDTEF0Columbia, WI0.225
April 255:44 PM CDTEF0Green Lake, WI7.130
April 256:20 PM CDTEF0Bell, TX1.450
April 256:47 PM CDTEF0Bell, TX0.750

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.