Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 1961

F2 tornado, Waseca County, Minnesota, May 14, 1961

This F2 tornado ran 5.1 miles across Waseca County on May 14, 1961, touching down at 6:16 PM GMT-5 and reaching 880 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 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
F2
Date
May 14, 1961
Touchdown
6:16 PM GMT-5 (23:16 UTC)
Path length
5.1 miles (8.2 km)
Path width
880 yards (805 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Waseca County
Touchdown point
43.970, -93.600
Lift-off point
44.030, -93.530
Record number
317

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.

Minneapolis, MN (KSTC), 12:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 95 km from the path. May 14, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 1961-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 466 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 1961-05-14The 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 205 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
466 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
205 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
221 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KSTC), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 95 km from the path. May 15, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 1961-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 605 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 1961-05-15The 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 166 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
605 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
148 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1961 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 14, 1961

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1412:30 PM GMT-5F1Buchanan, IA7.21502$5,000 to $50,000
May 141:45 PM GMT-5F1Bon Homme, SD0.360$500 to $5,000
May 142:50 PM GMT-5F2La Crosse, WI1.033$5,000 to $50,000
May 143:00 PM GMT-5F2Bienville Parish, LA6.1283$5,000 to $50,000
May 143:00 PM GMT-5F1Randolph, AR0.1100$500 to $5,000
May 145:20 PM GMT-5F2Arkansas, AR5.9417$5,000 to $50,000
May 146:00 PM GMT-5F3Adams, IL127.11008$500,000 to $5 million
May 146:10 PM GMT-5F1Bremer, IA0.1100$5,000 to $50,000
May 149:15 PM GMT-5F0Woodford, IL22.910$50 to $500
May 1411:10 PM GMT-5F1Sangamon, IL4.910$50,000 to $500,000

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.