Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2000
F2 tornado, Verndale to Staples, Minnesota, July 8, 2000
From Verndale to Staples, this F2 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Wadena and Todd counties on July 8, 2000, touching down at 9:20 PM CDT and reaching 60 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, and did $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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- July 8, 2000
- Touchdown
- 9:20 PM CDT (02:20 UTC)
- Path length
- 10.0 miles (16.1 km)
- Path width
- 60 yards (55 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 3
- Property damage
- $500,000
- Counties
- Wadena and Todd counties
- Touchdown point
- 46.400, -95.020
- Lift-off point
- 46.350, -94.780
- Record number
- 361
What the Weather Service recorded
A tornado that formed near Verndale intensified as it reached the Aldrich area. A mobile home, garage, barn, and 3 vehicles were destroyed 3 miles east of Aldrich. Two people, inside the mobile home when the tornado hit, suffered cuts, bruises, and a sprained ankle. The couples' son, sitting inside a car parked outside the mobile home, also sustained cuts and bruises. A horse trailer was pushed into his car and then into some nearby trees. Quite a bit of tree damage occurred along the damage path. The tornado then passed out of Wadena county and into Todd county.
Roofs blown off homes and one business. At least one dozen homes damaged. Numerous large trees down. One minor injury in Staples due to flying glass. Tornado crossed over from Wadena county.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
4 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:16 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01:44 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 02:16 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 02:49 UTC | 07:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | FGF |
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 01:12 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
2.3 hours before the tornado, 197 km from the path. July 9, 2000.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3971 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -17 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 7291 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1312 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 126 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 167 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.5
- Supercell composite
- 17.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.3 K/km
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z
9.7 hours after it, 197 km from the path. July 9, 2000.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 174 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -341 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 409 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1240 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 49 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 67 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The surface observations
Staples (SAZ), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:34 UTC | 82.4 | 80.6 | 50° 4 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 00:54 UTC | 80.6 | 80.6 | 50° 5 kt | 1009.1 | ||
| 01:16 UTC | 80.6 | 80.6 | 60° 6 kt | 1008.5 | ||
| 01:36 UTC | 80.6 | 80.6 | 60° 5 kt | 1008.1 | VCTS | |
| 01:54 UTC | 78.8 | 78.8 | 70° 7 kt | 1008.8 | TS | |
| 02:15 UTC | 78.8 | 78.8 | 60° 4 kt | 1008.8 | TS | |
| 02:37 UTC | 73.4 | 73.4 | 280° 23 kt | 32 | 1010.5 | +TSRA |
| 02:55 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 130° 8 kt | 1010.2 | +TSRA | |
| 03:35 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 10° 4 kt | 1008.5 | TSRA | |
| 04:17 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 200° 7 kt | 1008.5 | TSRA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
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 8, 2000
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.