Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2005

F0 tornado, Miltona, Minnesota, June 13, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Douglas County on June 13, 2005, touching down at 6:58 PM CDT and reaching 20 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 13, 2005
Touchdown
6:58 PM CDT (23:58 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Douglas County
Touchdown point
46.050, -95.320
Lift-off point
46.050, -95.320
Record number
236

What the Weather Service recorded

Trained spotters reported a funnel cloud extending close to the ground just west of Miltona, but their view was obstructed by trees so they could not say for certain if the funnel touched the ground. However, citizens photographed it touching down on Lake Miltona.

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

The warnings

28 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:30 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:07 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningMPX
23:30 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningMPX
00:30 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPX
01:12 UTC05:15 UTCFlash Flood 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 20:29 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

12.0 hours before the tornado, 189 km from the path. June 13, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2005-06-13Temperature 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 -58155, lifted condensation level 955 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2005-06-13The 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 231 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-58155 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
955 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
231 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
286 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 191 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:59 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:45 UTCHAIL 16 Nw AlexandriaDouglas, MN
23:58 UTCTORNADO1 W MiltonaDouglas, MNPUBLIC REPORT THAT TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN. TRAINED SPOTTERS SAW FUNNEL CLOUD EXTENDING CLOSE TO THE GROUND BUT THEIR VIEW OF THE GROUND WAS BLOCKED BY TREES.
23:58 UTCTORNADO3 Nw MiltonaDouglas, MNLARGE TORNADO AND GETTTING LARGER.
00:46 UTCHAIL 1GlenwoodPope, MN
00:53 UTCHAIL 0.883 Ne GlenwoodPope, MN
01:45 UTCHAIL 0.75BerthaTodd, MN

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 13, 2005

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 133:23 PM CDTF0Codington, SD0.120
June 133:49 PM CDTF0Codington, SD0.010
June 133:49 PM CDTF0Outagamie, WI0.275$1,000
June 133:51 PM CDTF0Codington, SD0.010
June 135:20 PM CDTF0Jersey, IL0.540
June 135:25 PM CDTF0Lincoln, MO0.250
June 136:00 PM CDTF0Macoupin, IL1.540
June 136:05 PM CDTF0Macoupin, IL1.050
June 136:05 PM CDTF1Macoupin, IL3.070
June 136:10 PM CDTF1Macoupin, IL2.560
June 136:10 PM CDTF0Newton, MO0.225
June 136:50 PM CDTF0Taylor, IA0.230
June 137:23 PM CDTF0Otter Tail, MN0.550
June 138:30 PM CDTF0Marion, IA0.230
June 138:47 PM CDTF0Marion, IA0.230
June 138:53 PM CDTF0Marion, IA0.125

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.