Showers and thunderstorms flared up by mid to late afternoon along an inverted trough that extended up into the Red River Valley. These resulted in several funnel clouds reports.
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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.
Showers and thunderstorms flared up by mid to late afternoon along an inverted trough that extended up into the Red River Valley. These resulted in several funnel clouds reports.
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 19, 10:27 AM CST, 3 hours 12 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND 1127 AM CDT WED AUG 19 2009 .DISCUSSION... THE MAIN FORECAST CHALLENGE IS PCPN. WHEN LOOKING AT THE LATEST SURFACE ANALYSIS...AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IS CENTERED N OF ABR IN SE ND...WITH AN INVERTED TROF EXTENDING THROUGH E ND TO ANOTHER LOW CENTERED NEAR LAKE YWG. UPON COMPARING THE MODELS...THE MODELS ARE IN PRETTY GOOD AGREEMENT ON THE WEATHER PATTERN PROGRESSION. THEREFORE...KEPT FORECAST CONTINUITY AND USED A MODEL BLEND FOR THE FORECAST UPDATE. CURRENT RADAR IMAGERY SHOWS ONE AREA OF SHRA MOVING THROUGH THE RED RIVER VALLEY INTO W MN. ANOTHER AREA OF SHRA/ISOLD TSRA IS MOVING THROUGH CENTRAL ND. WITH THE SURFACE LOW EXPECTED TO MOVE INTO SE MN BY 00Z THIS AFTERNOON...BEST 700MB LIFT AND 850MB Q-VECTOR CONVERGENCE SHIFTS IN MN THIS AFTERNOON. THUS...ANTICIPATE SHRA/TSRA TO CONTINUE AND POSSIBLY EVEN INTENSITY IN AREAL COVERAGE AND STRENGTH AS MORE INSTABILITY DEVELOPS THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT. THEREFORE...KEPT LIKELY TO CATEGORICAL POPS FOR THE AREA THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. ONLY MINOR CHANGES NEEDED TO REST OF FORECAST. && .AVIATION... VFR CIGS TO DROP TO MVFR AND EVEN IFR DUE TO SHRA/TSRA WITH MVFR VSBYS POSSIBLE AS WELL THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT. WINDS TO TURN FROM SE-S TO SW-W BY 00Z AS LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVES E OF THE AREA. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 327 AM CDT WED AUG 19 2009/ SHORT TERM...FORECAST CHALLENGES ARE LIMITED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL AND PRECIPITATION. IR SATELLITE IMAGERY IS SHOWING CIRRUS RAPIDLY EXPANDING ACROSS THE FA. THUS...LIMITED SOLAR INSOLATION EXPECTED TODAY. THIS...IN COMBINATION WITH RELATIVELY WEAK 0-6 KM SHEAR...SHOULD RESULT IN ONLY WIDELY SCATTERED SEVERE STORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING WITH MARGINAL SEVERE HAIL EXPECTED. THE SEE TEXT CLASSIFICATION IN THE SPC SWODY1 FOR THIS AREA APPEARS REASONABLE. CURRENT TSTM ACTIVITY DEVELOPING IN CENTRAL ND IS ELEVATED IN NATURE. RAINFALL WILL CONTINUE TO EXPAND AND SPREAD EASTWARD DURING THE MORNING HOURS. BEST MOISTURE FEED SETS UP ACROSS THE EASTERN FA WHERE PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES WILL BE BETWEEN 1.3 AND 1.5 INCHES THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT. SPC 850 MB MOISTURE TRANSPORT GRAPHICS ALSO SHOWING STRONGEST MOISTURE ADVECTION INTO THIS AREA. THUS...HIGHEST RAINFALL AMOUNTS SHOULD BE EAST OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY. THIS AREA COULD SEE RAINFALL TOTALS IN EXCESS OF 1 INCH BY THURSDAY. LOOKING AHEAD TO THU...STRONG SURFACE PRESSURE GRADIENT...DECENT LOW LEVEL COLD ADVECTION...DOWNWARD MOMENTUM TRANSFER AND NEARLY UNIDIRECTIONAL N-NW FLOW IN THE COLUMN MAY CAUSE WINDS TO INCREASE ENOUGH THAT A WIND ADVISORY HEADLINE MAY BE NEEDED DURING THE DAY ON THU. 850 MB WINDS INCREASE TO 40 KNOTS ACROSS THE W AND S FA. FUTURE SHIFTS WILL HAVE TO SEE IF THIS TREND PERSISTS. LONG TERM...WARMING TREND REMAINS IN PLACE FOR THE WEEKEND AS THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE CONTINUES TO BUILD INTO THE HIGH PLAINS. DID DROP PCPN CHANCE FOR THE DAY ON SUN AS CONFIDENCE REMAINS RATHER LOW. && .FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ND...NONE. MN...NONE. && NG
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND 602 AM CDT WED AUG 19 2009 MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024- 026>030-038-039-049-052>054-201215- 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- 602 AM CDT WED AUG 19 2009 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO TRACK ACROSS EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWESTERN MINNESOTA TODAY AND TONIGHT. THE MAJORITY OF THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL NOT BE SEVERE. HOWEVER...AN ISOLATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM MAY PRODUCE QUARTER SIZED HAIL THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. IN ADDITION...THE THUNDERSTORMS MAY PRODUCE LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL OF ONE TO TWO INCHES FOR A FEW LOCATIONS...ESPECIALLY EAST OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE DAY ON THURSDAY. THESE STORMS SHOULD BE CONCENTRATED EAST OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY. ANOTHER CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS EXISTS FOR SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. BRAMER
The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 19:42 UTC.
2 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.
Several public reports, trained spotter reports, and one pilot report indicated that a series of brief funnels quickly formed and dissipated across portions of Walsh, Grand Forks, and Steele Counties. These funnels formed coincident with a band of weak rain showers which crossed the area between 230 pm and 430 pm CDT.
A series of brief funnels quickly formed and dissipated across portions of Grand Forks County. These funnels formed coincident with a band of rain showers which crossed the area between 615 pm and 715 pm CDT.
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: 182738, 182739.