Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2013

EF0 tornado, Venersborg, Washington, March 21, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Clark County on March 21, 2013, touching down at 5:00 PM PDT and reaching 10 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 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
March 21, 2013
Touchdown
5:00 PM PDT (00:00 UTC)
Lifted
5:30 PM PDT (00:30 UTC)
On the ground
30 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Clark County
Touchdown point
45.750, -122.450
Lift-off point
45.750, -122.450
Record number
1303211800-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down in Clark county near Hockinson.

A tornado touched down 2 miles NE of Hockinson Washington. A barn roof was partially torn off. No other damage was noted to nearby trees, structures, or other vegetation around the barn.

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), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. March 22, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2013-03-22Temperature 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 -104241, lifted condensation level 1622 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 00:00Z on 2013-03-22The 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 61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 74 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-104241 J/kg
Surface CAPE
23 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1622 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
74 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
64 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

12.0 hours after it, 102 km from the path. March 22, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2013-03-22Temperature 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 -104906, lifted condensation level 848 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 2013-03-22The 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 89 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-104906 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
848 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
89 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
195 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Portland,OR radar (KRTX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:00 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
23:10 UTCTORNADO 02 Ne HockinsonClark, WAPRELIMINARY REPORT. ROOF PARTIALLY TORN OFF A BARN CONFIRMED. DEBRIS SPREAD OUT IN A 120 DEGREE CONE FROM THE BUILDING WITH THE LARGEST OBJECTS THROWN TO THE NNE OF THE STRUCTURE. LIGHTER OBJECTS WERE MOSTLY HUNG UP ON A

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in WashingtonEvery tornado in Washington since 1950Warnings in force in Washington nowThe forecast where you are

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.