EF1 tornado, Bay Shr, Washington, October 18, 2019

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

October 18, 2019

Touchdown

7:02 PM PDT (02:02 UTC)

Lifted

7:07 PM PDT (02:07 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

90 yards (82 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Mason County

Touchdown point

47.270, -122.942

Lift-off point

47.273, -122.929

Record number

1910182002-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SEW, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 87 mph.

• pair of large trees down on house
• large tree branches snapped

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Between approximately 6:02 - 6:07 PM on the evening of October 18, a tornado touched down near Shelton in Mason County, Washington before moving over the water of Pickering Passage and dissipating as a waterspout. The first video evidence and reports from area fire officials prompted the NWS to send a damage survey team to the area during the afternoon of October 19, 2019.

Between approximately 6:02 - 6:07 PM on the evening of October 18, a tornado touched down near Shelton in Mason County, Washington and traveled approximately 0.68 miles before moving over the water of Pickering Passage and dissipating as a waterspout. The first video evidence and reports from area fire officials prompted the NWS to send a damage survey team to the area during the afternoon of October 19, 2019. Preliminary evaluation of the damage by the team concluded that the tornado reached an EF-1 rating. The damage path was up to 90 yards in width and the tornado was estimated to be on the ground for approximately 5 minutes.||Fortunately, no injuries were reported with this tornado. Most of the damage was in the form of uprooted or snapped soft wood fir and cedar trees. Falling trees did impact at least two houses along the damage path, including one house that had two trees fall on the roof.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:41 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 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.

Shelton/Sanderson (SHN), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Langley Hill radar (KLGX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:03 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in WashingtonEvery tornado in Washington since 1950Warnings in force in Washington nowThe forecast where you are

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.