Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2005

F0 tornado, St Joseph to Sartell, Minnesota, June 10, 2005

From St Joseph to Sartell, this F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Stearns County on June 10, 2005, touching down at 6:34 PM CDT and reaching 25 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
June 10, 2005
Touchdown
6:34 PM CDT (23:34 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stearns County
Touchdown point
45.570, -94.400
Lift-off point
45.580, -94.380
Record number
931

What the Weather Service recorded

A storm chaser videotaped a tornado.

A storm chaser spotted a tornado near the intersection of Interstate 94 and Highway 2.

A storm chaser spotted a tornado.

A trained spotter saw a tornado briefly touch down in an open field. It kicked up dirt before lifting a short time later.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:38 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningMPX
00:29 UTC01:03 UTCTornado WarningMPX

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 20:00 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.

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. June 10, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2005-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 115 joules per kilogram, CIN -65, lifted condensation level 634 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2005-06-10The 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 64 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
115 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
634 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
64 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 102 km from the path. June 11, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2005-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 418 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 841 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2005-06-11The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
418 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
853 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
841 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:00 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD30 W St CloudStearns, MN
23:20 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDSauk RapidsBenton, MNREPORTED NEAR HIGHWAY 15.
23:39 UTCTORNADO1 W St JosephStearns, MN
23:46 UTCTORNADOSt JosephStearns, MNNEAR THE INTERSECTION OF INTERSTATE 94 AND HIGHWAY 2.
00:17 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 W SartellStearns, MN
00:22 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDSauk RapidsBenton, MN
00:37 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDRiceBenton, MN
01:00 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDBelgradeStearns, MNINTERSECTION OF COUNTY ROADS 4 AND 59.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 2005

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 102:03 PM CDTF0Marathon, WI0.120
June 104:05 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120
June 104:10 PM CDTF0Waupaca, WI0.120
June 104:18 PM CDTF0Brewster, TX1.0100
June 104:50 PM MDTF0Baca, CO2.0100$10,000
June 105:00 PM MDTF0Baca, CO1.0100$10,000
June 106:45 PM CDTF0Stearns, MN0.120
June 106:51 PM CDTF0Stearns, MN0.220
June 107:20 PM CDTF0Stearns, MN0.120
June 108:10 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120
June 108:22 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120
June 108:48 PM CDTF0Winnebago, WI0.120

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.