Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 1980

F1 tornado, Mower County, Minnesota, May 29, 1980

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Mower County on May 29, 1980, touching down at 8:36 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    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
F1
Date
May 29, 1980
Touchdown
8:36 PM CDT (01:36 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Mower County
Touchdown point
43.620, -92.980
Record number
365

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), 00:00Z

1.6 hours before the tornado, 145 km from the path. May 30, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 1980-05-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -9225, lifted condensation level 1683 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1980-05-30The 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 -29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9225 J/kg
Surface CAPE
233 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1683 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KSTC), 12:00Z

10.4 hours after it, 145 km from the path. May 30, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 1980-05-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -9656, lifted condensation level 854 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1980-05-30The 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 -5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9656 J/kg
Surface CAPE
28 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
854 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Rochester (RST), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC696350° 14 kt1005.8-TSRA
01:00 UTC666330° 12 kt1006.1TSRA
02:00 UTC6563360° 15 kt1004.7TSRA
02:24 UTC350° 21 kt281006.8
03:00 UTC615920° 18 kt1006.8-TSRA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1980 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 29, 1980

39 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 292:55 PM CDTF1Laramie, WY to CO14.540$50,000 to $500,000
May 293:00 PM CDTF0Jackson, OK0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 294:00 PM CDTF0Spink, SD0.110
May 294:50 PM CDTF2Dixon, NE3.360$500,000 to $5 million
May 295:00 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.110
May 295:13 PM CDTF0Spink, SD0.310
May 295:15 PM CDTF0Lyon, IA0.360
May 295:17 PM CDTF0Spink, SD1.010
May 295:22 PM CDTF1Faribault, MN2.080$50,000 to $500,000
May 295:23 PM CDTF0Beadle, SD1.010
May 295:30 PM CDTF2Cerro Gordo, IA0.530$5,000 to $50,000
May 294:30 PM MDTF1Kit Carson, CO1.040$50 to $500
May 295:37 PM CDTF2Collingsworth, TX16.2160$50 to $500
May 297:12 PM CDTF1Freeborn, MN6.9400$50,000 to $500,000
May 297:35 PM CDTF1Fillmore, NE10.010$500 to $5,000
May 298:00 PM CDTF1Buena Vista, IA4.240$5,000 to $50,000
May 298:16 PM CDTF0Ellsworth, KS0.110
May 298:17 PM CDTF0Barton, KS0.110
May 298:25 PM CDTF1Butler, NE19.6802$500,000 to $5 million
May 298:28 PM CDTF2Jackson, OK0.110$500,000 to $5 million
May 298:35 PM CDTF1Ellsworth, KS0.110$500 to $5,000
May 298:40 PM CDTF0Fillmore, NE0.110
May 298:45 PM CDTF1Thayer, NE6.217$50,000 to $500,000
May 299:00 PM CDTF1Webster, IA0.530$5,000 to $50,000
May 299:00 PM CDTF0Howard, IA0.130
May 299:00 PM CDTF0Hardeman, TX0.110
May 299:15 PM CDTF0Yankton, SD1.010
May 299:15 PM CDTF0Yankton, SD1.010
May 299:30 PM CDTF0Dixon, NE0.110under $50
May 299:45 PM CDTF1Hamilton, IA0.130$5,000 to $50,000
May 2910:00 PM CDTF1Harrison, IA1.030$5,000 to $50,000
May 2910:20 PM CDTF1Carroll, IA0.130$5,000 to $50,000
May 2911:00 PM CDTF2Wilbarger, TX13.2100

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.