Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 1993

F0 tornado, Kittson County, Minnesota, July 27, 1993

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Kittson County on July 27, 1993, touching down at 4:23 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
July 27, 1993
Touchdown
4:23 PM CDT (21:23 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kittson County
Touchdown point
48.580, -96.720
Record number
896

The warnings

30 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:53 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:53 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF
21:58 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

International Fa, MN (KINL), 12:00Z

9.4 hours before the tornado, 252 km from the path. July 27, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, International Fa, MN at 12:00Z on 1993-07-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 540 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, International Fa, MN at 12:00Z on 1993-07-27The 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 45 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
540 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

International Fa, MN (KINL), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 252 km from the path. July 28, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, International Fa, MN at 00:00Z on 1993-07-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1026 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 802 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, International Fa, MN at 00:00Z on 1993-07-28The 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 144 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1026 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
941 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
802 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
191 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
3.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hallock (HCO), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:00 UTC706580° 15 kt201002.7
21:00 UTC6963.8670° 12 kt1002
22:00 UTC6763.8670° 8 kt151002
23:00 UTC7268110° 5 kt161001.7

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 27, 1993

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 271:15 PM CDTF0Ramsey, ND0.110
July 273:35 PM CDTF0Walsh, ND0.110$500 to $5,000
July 274:00 PM CDTF1Walsh, ND0.250$5,000 to $50,000
July 274:05 PM CDTF0Walsh, ND0.110
July 274:15 PM CDTF0Marshall, MN0.110
July 274:28 PM CDTF0Marshall, MN8.010
July 274:31 PM CDTF0Beltrami, MN0.110
July 274:33 PM CDTF0Grand Forks, ND0.110
July 274:34 PM CDTF0Roseau, MN4.010
July 274:44 PM CDTF0Winona, MN0.113$5,000 to $50,000
July 274:44 PM CDTF0Roseau, MN0.110
July 275:00 PM CDTF1Sheridan, ND0.223
July 275:09 PM CDTF1Sheridan, ND0.330
July 275:53 PM CDTF0Roseau, MN0.110
July 275:58 PM CDTF0Roseau, MN5.010
July 276:25 PM CDTF0Itasca, MN0.110
July 276:53 PM CDTF0Roseau, MN0.110
July 277:15 PM CDTF0Eau Claire, WI0.250$500 to $5,000

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.