Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2015

EF1 tornado, Battle Ground, Washington, December 10, 2015

This EF1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Clark County on December 10, 2015, touching down at 11:15 AM PST and reaching 528 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $311,000 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 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
December 10, 2015
Touchdown
11:15 AM PST (19:15 UTC)
Lifted
11:21 AM PST (19:21 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
528 yards (483 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$311,000
County
Clark County
Touchdown point
45.770, -122.537
Lift-off point
45.762, -122.549
Record number
1512101315-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado with winds up to 104 mph touched down southwest of Battleground around 1115 am. There were at least two touch down points along the 2 mile path. No injuries or fatalities were reported, but residences and businesses sustained property damage.

Around 36 homes and 2 businesses sustained damage from the tornado. Dozens of trees with a diameter of 1 to 3 feet were uprooted and blown down, and around a half of a dozen 1 to 2 foot diameter trees were snapped.

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 16:29 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), 12:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. December 10, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2015-12-10Temperature 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 -18, lifted condensation level 621 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 2015-12-10The 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 411 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 72 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
33 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
621 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
72 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
411 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
553 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.7 hours after it, 101 km from the path. December 11, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2015-12-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 66 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 793 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 2015-12-11The 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 214 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
66 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
178 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
793 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
225 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Pearson Airpark Vancouver (VUO), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:53 UTC5144170° 8 kt18994.2
18:32 UTC5145130° 11 kt16995.6
18:53 UTC5144170° 8 kt17995.9VCTS
19:02 UTC5144160° 10 kt17995.9VCTS -RA
19:14 UTC5144200° 9 kt995.9VCTS -RA
19:23 UTC5145280° 7 kt15996.3-RA
19:51 UTC51.842.8180° 10 kt24996.3-RA
19:53 UTC5243190° 10 kt24996.3-RA
20:53 UTC5243180° 12 kt20997-RA
21:12 UTC5142190° 10 kt20996.6VCTS

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

The radar

The Portland,OR radar (KRTX), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:13 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
19:15 UTCTORNADO1 Sse Battle GroundClark, WANWS STORM SURVEY TEAM HAS CONFIRMED A TORNADO WITH WINDS UP TO 104 MPH TOUCHED DOWN SOUTHWEST OF BATTLE GROUND WASHINGTON AT ABOUT 1115 AM. THE TORNADO IS RATED AN EF1...86 TO 110 MPH. THERE WERE AT LEAST 2 TOUCHDOWN POI
19:15 UTCTORNADO1 Sse Battle GroundClark, WANWS STORM SURVEY TEAM HAS CONFIRMED A TORNADO WITH WINDS UP TO 104 MPH TOUCHED DOWN SOUTHWEST OF BATTLE GROUND WASHINGTON AT ABOUT 1115 AM. THE TORNADO IS RATED AN EF1...86 TO 110 MPH. THERE WERE AT LEAST 2 TOUCHDOWN POI
19:20 UTCTORNADOBattle GroundClark, WADAMAGE ASSESSMENT TEAM CONFIRMS TORNADO DAMAGE IN BATTLE GROUND. ASSESSMENT OF WIND SPEEDS ONGOING SO TORNADO RATING HAS YET TO BE DETERMINED. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 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.