The summer's first real stretch of hot weather preceded this event, as temperatures rose into the 90s between the 12th and 14th at the official observing site at Fargo, North Dakota. Tropical-like moisture also encompassed the area, with surface dew points rising to near 70F.
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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.
The summer's first real stretch of hot weather preceded this event, as temperatures rose into the 90s between the 12th and 14th at the official observing site at Fargo, North Dakota. Tropical-like moisture also encompassed the area, with surface dew points rising to near 70F. Some thunderstorms fired up over northeast South Dakota on the evening of the 14th, along a convergent boundary that extended up into southeast North Dakota. One thunderstorm tracked up into Sargent County and produced strong wind gusts.
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 Aug 14, 1:35 PM CST, 4 hours 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND 235 PM CDT FRI AUG 14 2009 .SHORT TERM... SVR THREAT MAIN CHALLENGE THRU SATURDAY. WEAK FRONTAL BOUNDARY WHICH SLIPPED TO NR A BJI-FAR LINE BY LATE MORNING DUE TO MORNING CONVECTIVE OUTFLOWS HAS RE-SITUATED ITSELF BACK WEST AND EXTENDS FROM HALLOCK TO JUST WEST OF GRAND FORKS TO JUST EAST OF JAMESTOWN THEN DOWN TO LOW PRESSURE NORTHWEST OF PIERRE SOUTH DAKOTA. LOWER CLOUDS THAT FORMED NEAR RAIN AREAS THIS MORNING AND THAT HAD DRIFTED SOUTHWARD TOWARD FARGO WITH THE NORTH WIND HAS MIXED OUT AND ENOUGH SFC HEATING TO GET TEMPS BACK INTO THE 80S EAST OF THE BOUNDARY. DEW PTS VERY HIGH MOSTLY IN THE LOWER 70S ALONG BOUNDARY. SPC MESOSCALE PAGE SHOWS MUCAPES 3000 TO 4000 J/KG GFK- FAR-JMS AREA WITH CIN DECREASING. POTENTIAL THERE FOR SFC BASED SVR TSTMS LATE THIS AFTN INTO THE EVENING. FREEZING LEVELS QUITE HIGH CLOSE TO 14 KFT SO WILL NEED VERY LARGE STORMS FOR HAIL. HIGH RESOLUTION RAPID REFRESH ALONG WITH RUC SHOWS 850-500 MB SHORT WAVE MOVING FROM WRN SD INTO CNTRL ND OVERNIGHT WITH A LOW LEVEL JET OF 35-40KTS THRU ERN HALF OF SD SPREADING INTO SE ND AFTER 01-02Z. THUS POTENTIAL IS THERE SVR STORMS TO CONTINUE THRU THE NIGHT AS THEY BECOME ELEVATED. THREAT FOR ADDITIONAL THUNDERSTORMS...THOUGH LESS CHANCE FOR SVR...WILL OCCUR SATURDAY AS ENTIRE SYSTEM MOVES THROUGH WITH THE SYSTEM EXITING SLOWLY ON SUNDAY. MUCH COOLER AIR MOVES IN ON SUNDAY AS AN UPPER LOW TROUGH DROPS INTO NW ND AND 850 MB TEMPS COOL INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS. .LONG TERM TUE-FRI... NOT TOO MUCH AGREEMENT ON THE DETAILS IN THE TUE-FRI FORECAST. ON THE LARGE SCALE...IT DOES LOOK TO REMAIN ON THE COOL SIDE OF NORMAL. RIDGING GETS GOING ON THE WEST COAST AGAIN SETTING THE NATIONS MIDSECTION BACK INTO A BROAD TROUGH/CYCLONIC FLOW. WITH THE DISAGREEMENT IN DETAILS...HARD TO BE TOO SPECIFIC. SOME MODEL SOLUTIONS ARE SHOWING 850MB TEMPS DROPPING DOWN INTO THE 4C RANGE SOME MORNINGS...SO COOL IS THE TREND. TRIED TO STAY CLOSE TO FORECAST CONTINUITY IN REGARD TO PCPN CHANCES. IN CYCLONIC FLOW ANY GOOD WAVE COULD KEEP PCPN AROUND OVERNIGHT...BUT BEST CHANCES WOULD PROBABLY BE DURING PEAK HEATING WED/THU. && .AVIATION... TOUGH CALL FOR MOST OF THE AVIATION FORECAST PARAMETERS. MODELS ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE IN REGARD TO WIND DIRECTIONS. HOWEVER...THEY DO LOOK PRETTY LIGHT FOR THE MOST PART...SO IT SHOULD NOT BE TOO CRITICAL. CLOUD HEIGHTS TOOK ALL MORNING AND INTO THE EARLY AFTERNOON TO RISE AT KDVL/KGFK/KTVF. OUTSIDE OF ANY PCPN THEY SHOULD STAY VFR. AREAS THAT SAW PCPN TODAY COULD SEE SOME FOG AS WINDS GET LIGHTER OVERNIGHT. AS FAR AS CONVECTIVE REDEVELOPMENT GOES...TRIED TO PUT OFF MENTION OF ADDITIONAL TSTMS UNTIL LATE AFTERNOON OR EARLY EVENING. && .FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ND...NONE. MN...NONE. && RIDDLE/GODON
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND 701 AM CDT FRI AUG 14 2009 MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024- 026>030-038-039-049-052>054-151215- 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- 701 AM CDT FRI AUG 14 2009 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS OVER EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...NORTHWESTERN AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA TODAY INTO TONIGHT. THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREATS ARE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THE SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUES THROUGH SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA. LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS REMAIN THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREATS. THE POTENTIAL FOR THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUES ON SUNDAY. THERE IS ALSO A POSSIBILITY OF THUNDERSTORMS FROM TUESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY AS THE NEXT LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVES SOUTH OUT OF CANADA. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS POSSIBLE TODAY INTO SATURDAY. NG
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
126 PM CDT FRI AUG 14 2009
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0705 AM HAIL 10 SW MADDOCK 47.86N 99.68W
08/14/2009 E1.00 INCH BENSON ND PUBLIC
&&
VJPEARCEThe Aberdeen radar (KABR), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:20 UTC.
1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Several 4 to 6 inch diameter tree branches were blown down in a shelterbelt.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in North Dakota in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in North Dakota, August 2009
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: 180444.