AMERICAN FALLS — When a tornado touched down Wednesday northwest of American Falls residents had no warning that the twister was circling overhead. In fact, John Hinsberger, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said his organization didn’t know about the tornado until they saw it.

    “We issued the tornado warning probably within one minute of it touching down,” Hinsberger said.

    The tornado was rated an EF-0, meaning that wind speeds did not exceed 80 mph. The tornado that devastated the community of Moore, Okla., was rated EF-5 indicating that wind gusts could have reached 200 mph.

    So how did Wednesday’s Power County tornado escape the technology employed by the National Weather Service?

    Hinsberger said tornados are tracked by radar and the circulation created by Wednesday’s twister was not large enough to show up on the radar screen.

    “It’s difficult to detect small circulation,” Hinsberger said. “That’s why we weren’t able to see it until we saw it out the window.”

    Wednesday’s tornado was created when wind from the mountains of Arbon Valley combined with wind coming off the Snake River Plain to create the rotation.

    The tornado could be seen from Pocatello.

    Tornados are rare in Southeast Idaho, but they do occur. In 2002, a tornado touched down in the same area as Wednesday’s twister.

    While the tornado was reported to have been on the ground for as long as 20 minutes, it appears to have caused little damage.

    A home just past County Line Road on North Pleasant Valley Road belonging to Cody Phillips sustained some minor roof damage and four older trees on the property were uprooted by the tornado. Phillips was not home when the storm hit.

    Rosaura Morales was butchering chickens Friday at her North Pleasant Valley Road home, but she took a break to talk about the tornado.

    Morales said the wind and dust forced her inside Wednesday just after 6 p.m. and she watched the tornado touch down from the second story of her farm house. The house has a basement, but Morales rode out the storm upstairs.

    “It was scary, it lasted about 20 minutes, then it was over,” Morales said.