Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2014

EF0 tornado, North Prosser, Washington, August 13, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Benton County on August 13, 2014, touching down at 6:30 PM PDT and reaching 15 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
August 13, 2014
Touchdown
6:30 PM PDT (01:30 UTC)
Lifted
6:33 PM PDT (01:33 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Benton County
Touchdown point
46.320, -119.800
Lift-off point
46.320, -119.800
Record number
1408131930-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level low pressure system off the coast of southwest Oregon slowly moved inland the afternoon and evening of August 13th. This lead to another round of showers and thunderstorms for most of the forecast area. Heavy rain and large hail were the main severe weather threats on this day. But an isolated tornado was reported near Rattle Snake Mountain.

Small tornado touched down in an open field with no damage 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

1.5 hours before the tornado, 294 km from the path. August 14, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2014-08-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 23 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 1483 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, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2014-08-14The 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 6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 6 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
23 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
348 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1483 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-25 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

10.5 hours after it, 294 km from the path. August 14, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2014-08-14Temperature 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 -42, lifted condensation level 937 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, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2014-08-14The 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 27 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
21 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
937 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-21 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Pendleton radar (KPDT), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:29 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
01:15 UTCHAIL 0.88Wsw BickletonKlickitat, WA
01:30 UTCTORNADO10 E SunnysideBenton, WASMALL TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN AN OPEN FIELD...NO DAMAGE REPORTED
02:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.5BickletonKlickitat, WA1.50 INCHES OF RAIN FELL IN ONE HOUR FROM 6PM TO 7PM. PLUGGED CULVERTS AND DRAINAGES WITH WATER ON ROAD.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 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.