Severe thunderstorms developed across central and north central North Dakota Monday (23rd) evening. Most of the storms developed near a strong upper level disturbance and an upper jet tracking along the Canadian border.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS FGF wrote it up.
Severe thunderstorms developed across central and north central North Dakota Monday (23rd) evening. Most of the storms developed near a strong upper level disturbance and an upper jet tracking along the Canadian border.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 23, 1:28 PM CST, 5 hours 12 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND 228 PM CDT MON JUN 23 2008 .SHORT TERM... FORECAST CHALLENGE THROUGHOUT THE TONIGHT TO THURSDAY TIME FRAME IS PCPN CHANCES/TIMING. PATTERN IS VERY MUDDLED AND WILL TRY TO GIVE BEST DETAIL TO THE CONVECTIVE CHANCES TONIGHT. HAVE NO REAL MODEL PREFERENCE TODAY...AS THERE ARE HIGHLY VARIABLE SOLUTIONS THRU THE SHORT TERM PERIOD. TONIGHT...WEAK VIRGA/VERY LIGHT SHOWERS HAVE HELD TOGETHER EARLY THIS AFTERNOON...AND ARE NOW ACROSS OR APPROACHING THE WESTERN FA. SOME OF THESE ECHOES WENT RIGHT OVER KDVL AND HAVE NOT SEEN ANY REPORT OF PCPN YET...BUT THESE COULD DROP SOME VERY LIGHT RAIN. OTHERWISE...AS FAR AS THE SEVERE TSTM THREAT TONIGHT...SPC DID BACK OFF AGAIN AND SHIFTED THE THREAT AREA WEST TO JUST INCLUDE THE KDVL REGION OF OUR FA. WATER VAPOR IMAGERY SHOWS THE NEXT UPSTREAM VORTICITY CENTER APPROACHING NORTHWEST ND...HELPING TO BREAK DOWN THE MID LEVEL RIDGE AXIS OVER THE NORTHERN PLAINS. WEAK SFC TROUGH CURRENTLY LIES OVER THE WESTERN PART OF ND...FROM WEST OF KMOT TO EAST OF KDIK. MESOANALYSIS GRAPHICS FROM THE SPC WEB SITE (RUC) SHOW SURFACE BASED LIFTED INDICES IN THIS AREA ABOUT -3 TO -5 ALONG WITH A RIBBON OF SFC DEW POINTS IN THE MID TO UPPER 50S. SFC BASED CAPE VALUES ARE ALSO RUNNING AROUND 1000 J/KG WITH 0-6KM BULK SHEAR VALUES OF 30-40KTS. 60KT UPPER JET ALSO NOSING INTO THIS AREA AS EXPECTED ALONG WITH THE PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED AREA OF VORTICITY. VISIBLE SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWS SOME LINES OF CUMULUS TRYING TO GET GOING IN THAT AREA. THIS WILL BE THE AREA OF INITIAL TSTM FORMATION...SO IT WILL TAKE A WHILE TO GET TO OUR FA. AT THIS POINT THINK ANYTHING THAT FIRES OUT WEST WILL TAKE UNTIL ABOUT 00-03Z TUE TO GET INTO THE KDVL REGION/ WESTERN FA. PROBABLY BY MID TO LATE EVENING FOR THE VALLEY AREA...BUT THAT WILL BEAR WATCHING. WITH PLENTY OF CLOUD COVER AROUND TONIGHT...IT SHOULD BE A MILD NIGHT. INSTABILITY DECREASES AFTER MIDNIGHT...SO NOT EXPECTING SEVERE TSTMS THAT LATE. TUE-THU...AS STATED ABOVE THE PATTERN GETS VERY MUDDLED AFTER THE ROUND OF SHOWERS/TSTMS TONIGHT. THIS IS DUE TO THE MID/UPPER LEVEL FLOW TURNING MORE ZONAL...WITH LOTS OF LITTLE WAVES EMBEDDED IN THE FLOW MAKING TIMING EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. HATE TO HAVE NEARLY THE ENTIRE SHORT TERM FORECAST CARRYING SOME LOW PCPN CHANCES... BUT SAW LITTLE OTHER WAY AROUND IT TODAY. MODELS ARE ALL TRYING TO GENERATE ANOTHER CHANCE OF TSTMS TUE/TUE NIGHT. THE SETUP LOOKS LIKE A SFC LOW OVER WESTERN SD AND A WARM FRONT LYING TO ITS EAST. PRETTY GOOD EAST-WEST THERMAL GRADIENT THERE...AND THE MODELS ARE TRYING TO GENERATE BULLS EYES OF PCPN RIDING ALONG OR NORTH OF IT. THE GFS IS FURTHER SOUTH THAN THE NAM/UKMET...SO FOLLOWING A MIDDLE OF THE ROAD SOLUTION FOR NOW. TEMPS LOOK TO STAY ON THE MILD SIDE. .LONG TERM FRI-MON... MAIN CHALLENGE FOR LONG RANGE WILL BE TIMING/AMPLIFICATION OF MID LEVEL WAVE/CLOSED LOW PASSAGE THIS WEEKEND. 12Z GFS COMING IN MUCH SLOWER WITH WAVE PASSAGE. THIS WOULD HAVE MAJOR IMPLICATIONS ON PCPN AND TEMPERATURES MAINLY SAT AND SUN (MUCH COOLER AND POTENTIALLY WETTER). AT THIS POINT SLOWER SOLUTION ODD MODEL OUT AND FOR THIS PACKAGE WILL FOLLOW MORE PROGRESSIVE NATIONAL GUIDANCE SOLUTION. WITH THIS BEST CHANCES FOR PCPN WILL BE FRIDAY WITH ABOVE AVERAGE TEMPERATURES RETURNING OVER THE WEEKEND. && .AVIATION... PRIMARILY VFR THROUGH PERIOD. SCT T WILL AFFECT MAINLY WESTERN FA LATER THIS EVENING WEAKENING AS THEY PROPAGATE EAST OVERNIGHT. && .FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ND...NONE. MN...NONE. && GODON/VOELKER
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND 700 AM CDT MON JUN 23 2008 MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024- 026>030-038-039-049-052>054-241200- WEST POLK-NORMAN-CLAY-KITTSON-ROSEAU-LAKE OF THE WOODS- WEST MARSHALL-EAST MARSHALL-NORTH BELTRAMI-PENNINGTON-RED LAKE- EAST POLK-NORTH CLEARWATER-SOUTH BELTRAMI-MAHNOMEN- SOUTH CLEARWATER-HUBBARD-WEST BECKER-EAST BECKER-WILKIN- WEST OTTER TAIL-EAST OTTER TAIL-WADENA-GRANT-TOWNER-CAVALIER- PEMBINA-BENSON-RAMSEY-EASTERN WALSH COUNTY-EDDY-NELSON- GRAND FORKS-GRIGGS-STEELE-TRAILL-BARNES-CASS-RANSOM-SARGENT- RICHLAND-WESTERN WALSH COUNTY- 700 AM CDT MON JUN 23 2008 ...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THE STORMS WILL OCCUR ROUGHLY WEST OF A LINE FROM NECHE TO WIMBLEDON NORTH DAKOTA. THE STORMS WILL OCCUR AFTER 6 PM MONDAY THROUGH MIDNIGHT. THE STORM WILL MOST LIKELY PRODUCE SOME LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. MOIST UNSTABLE WILL MOVE NORTH TODAY. AN UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE AND A COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP EAST ACROSS NORTH DAKOTA THIS EVENING AND PRODUCE THE THUNDERSTORMS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED. HOPPES
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
12 hail, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Hail fell for twenty minutes, resulting in several sections of damaged crop land in Impark Township.
Hail fell for nearly five minutes near the Cavalier County line along with strong winds. Several sections of crop land recieved damage in Dash and Lansing Townships.
A brief funnel cloud was reported to be about four miles north of the Canadian border in southern Manitoba. Hail damaged roofs and decks in town. Several large tree branches were blown down by the strong winds.
Several large sections of cropland received damage in Esmond and Rich Valley Townships.
A persistent funnel produced a brief touchdown in an open field.
The hail was reported by a North Dakota ARB observer.
The hail remained on the ground for about one and a half hours. Several sections of crop land recieved damage in Arne Township.
The hail was reported by a North Dakota ARB observer. Several sections of cropland received damage across Hesper and North Viking townships.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in North Dakota in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for North Dakota, 2008Warnings in North Dakota, June 2008
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 116036, 116037, 116040, 116041, 116051, 116052, 116053, 118639, 116054, 116055, 116056, 116057, 116058.