Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2000

F0 tornado, Adrian, Minnesota, July 25, 2000

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Nobles County on July 25, 2000, touching down at 8:15 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 25, 2000
Touchdown
8:15 PM CDT (01:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Nobles County
Touchdown point
43.630, -95.950
Lift-off point
43.630, -95.950
Record number
432

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief tornado caused no reported damage.

A brief tornado caused no reported damage.

A brief tornado caused no reported damage.

A brief tornado caused no reported damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS FSD issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:12 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:12 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningFSD
01:39 UTC02:30 UTCTornado WarningFSD
02:29 UTC03:15 UTCTornado WarningFSD

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:52 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.

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 231 km from the path. July 26, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2000-07-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1668 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 1176 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, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2000-07-26The 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 103 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1668 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1979 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1176 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
103 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
5.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z

10.7 hours after it, 231 km from the path. July 26, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2000-07-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 196 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 803 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, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2000-07-26The 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 55 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.193958Sfc1 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
196 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
168 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
803 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:17 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 25, 2000

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 251:27 PM CDTF0Becker, MN0.550
July 252:10 PM CDTF0Codington, SD0.110
July 253:50 PM CDTF0Mille Lacs, MN0.230
July 255:38 PM CDTF0Lac qui Parle, MN0.110
July 255:45 PM CDTF0Yellow Medicine, MN0.220
July 255:57 PM CDTF4Granite Falls tornado, MN9.0160115$20 million
July 256:25 PM CDTF0Lyon, MN0.150
July 258:10 PM CDTF2Nobles, MN3.0200$150,000
July 258:15 PM CDTF0Carver, MN0.120
July 258:20 PM CDTF0Nobles, MN0.150
July 258:25 PM CDTF0Hennepin, MN0.120
July 258:27 PM CDTF0Nobles, MN0.150
July 258:35 PM CDTF0Nobles, MN0.150

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.