Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2008

EF0 tornado, Savageton, Wyoming, September 1, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Campbell County on September 1, 2008, touching down at 4:24 PM MDT and reaching 20 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
September 1, 2008
Touchdown
4:24 PM MDT (22:24 UTC)
Lifted
4:29 PM MDT (22:29 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Campbell County
Touchdown point
43.921, -105.709
Lift-off point
43.921, -105.709
Record number
0809011624-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado touched down near Savageton.

The brief tornado caused no damage.

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 19:44 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.

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 12:00Z

10.4 hours before the tornado, 227 km from the path. September 1, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2008-09-01Temperature 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 -79110, lifted condensation level 1352 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2008-09-01The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
-79110 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1352 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 00:00Z

1.6 hours after it, 227 km from the path. September 2, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2008-09-02Temperature 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 -79083, lifted condensation level 943 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2008-09-02The 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 -22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 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
-79083 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
943 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 231 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:25 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 1, 2008

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 18:55 AM CDTEF0Santa Rosa, FL0.130$12,000
September 19:15 AM CDTEF0Okaloosa, FL0.120
September 19:45 AM CDTEF0Okaloosa, FL0.230$20,000
September 110:00 AM CDTEF0Santa Rosa, FL0.120
September 11:05 PM CDTEF0Baldwin, AL0.130$20,000
September 11:18 PM CDTEF0Forrest, MS0.525$2,000
September 11:34 PM CDTEF0Lamar, MS2.030$2,000
September 11:45 PM CDTEF0Lamar, MS3.150$10,000
September 12:00 PM CDTEF0Jefferson Davis, MS1.350$2,000
September 12:31 PM CDTEF0Jasper, MS0.725
September 12:40 PM CDTEF0Jasper, MS0.625
September 13:08 PM CDTEF0Escambia, FL0.230$5,000
September 13:31 PM CDTEF0Clarke, MS2.050$10,000
September 13:45 PM CDTEF0Escambia, FL0.120
September 14:35 PM CDTEF1Scott, MS6.0100$20,000
September 14:40 PM CDTEF0Rankin, MS0.825
September 18:07 PM CDTEF0Avoyelles Parish, LA0.125

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.