Tornadoes · United States · Washington · 2017

EF0 tornado, Salmon Creek, Washington, October 12, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Clark County on October 12, 2017, touching down at 3:05 PM PDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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
October 12, 2017
Touchdown
3:05 PM PDT (22:05 UTC)
Lifted
3:08 PM PDT (22:08 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$2,000
County
Clark County
Touchdown point
45.726, -122.639
Lift-off point
45.724, -122.638
Record number
1710121605-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A low pressure system moving into Washington brought showers and thunderstorms across southwest Washington. These storms had been showing weak rotation. One of these storms produced a tornado near Vancouver.

The National Weather Service survey team confirmed an EF-0 tornado. The tornado started north of NE 31st Ave and NE 144th St and ended near the col-de-sac on NE 33rd Ave. Two large trees lost limbs, a couple fences were blown over, and some patio furniture were damaged; however, there was no structural damage to any houses in the neighborhood.

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 19:56 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

10.1 hours before the tornado, 94 km from the path. October 12, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2017-10-12Temperature 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 -91570, lifted condensation level 639 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 2017-10-12The 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 291 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
-91570 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
639 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
291 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
313 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.9 hours after it, 94 km from the path. October 13, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2017-10-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 129 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 816 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 2017-10-13The 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 205 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
129 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
598 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
816 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
205 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
250 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Portland,OR radar (KRTX), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:04 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
22:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ne Salmon CreekClark, WAPUBLIC REPORT OF DAMAGE TO TREES, A FENCE, AND PATIO FURNITURE. PHOTOS CONFIRM THAT A SECTION OF A FENCE WAS KNOCKED OVER AND SOME TREE LIMBS WERE SNAPPED. UNABLE TO CONFIRM WAS DUE TO A TORNADO, BUT UNCONFIRMED FUNNEL C
22:05 UTCTORNADO1 Ne Salmon CreekClark, WANATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SURVEY TEAM CONFIRMED AN EF-0 TORNADO. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL BE DETAILED IN A PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT (PNS).

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in WashingtonEvery tornado in Washington since 1950Warnings in force in Washington nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 12, 2017

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 123:39 PM PDTEF0Marion, OR0.650$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.