Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2005
F1 tornado, Rustad, Minnesota, September 5, 2005
This F1 tornado ran 2.5 miles across Clay County on September 5, 2005, touching down at 8:04 PM CDT and reaching 100 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.
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 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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
- F1
- Date
- September 5, 2005
- Touchdown
- 8:04 PM CDT (01:04 UTC)
- Path length
- 2.5 miles (4.0 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Clay County
- Touchdown point
- 46.750, -96.780
- Lift-off point
- 46.770, -96.730
- Record number
- 415
What the Weather Service recorded
This tornado originated one mile west of Wild Rice in Cass County, North Dakota. The tornado continued along a 2.5 mile track in Minnesota, uprooting or snapping off numerous trees around two farmsteads. Debris was carried into nearby fields up to 200 yards away. A deck was torn off a home and a small metal shed was destroyed by the debris. At least one power pole was snapped off, which resulted in power outages across Kurtz Township. Peak wind speeds were estimated at 110 mph.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:19 UTC | 10:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 20:45 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | WNS |
| 00:02 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 00:11 UTC | 00:56 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 01:13 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
1.1 hours before the tornado, 243 km from the path. September 6, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 239 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -42 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 262 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1970 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -24 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -14 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.8 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z
10.9 hours after it, 243 km from the path. September 6, 2005.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -67162 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1291 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 1 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 38 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The radar
The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:04 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:30 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 7 E Georgetown | Clay, MN | |
| 01:04 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nw Rustad | Clay, MN | TORNADO CROSSED RED RIVER FROM CASS COUNTY NORTH DAKOTA AND CONTINUED INTERMITTANT DAMAGE TRACK FOR ABOUT 2.5 MILES TO THE ENE NEAR 2.5 NNE RUSTAD BY 812 PM. TORNADO UPROOTED OR SNAPPED OFF NUMEROUS TREES IN TWO FARMSTED |
| 01:30 UTC | HAIL 1 | 7 S Hawley | Clay, MN | SOFT DIME TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL WITH STRONG WINDS. |
| 01:40 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 12 N Lake Park | Becker, MN | TREE BRANCHES DOWN. BRIEF POWER OUTAGES. |
| 01:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 8 W Pelican Rapids | Otter Tail, MN | LARGE BRANCHES DOWN ALONG WILKIN-OTTERTAIL COUNTY LINE |
| 01:55 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 60 | 5 N Rothsay | Wilkin, MN | LARGE BRANCHES DOWN ALONG WILKIN-OTTERTAIL COUNTY LINE. |
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 September 5, 2005
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 5 | 7:50 PM CDT | F2 | Cass, ND | 4.0 | 200 | |||
| September 5 | 8:00 PM CDT | F1 | Cass, ND | 1.5 | 100 | |||
| September 5 | 7:26 PM MDT | F0 | Wallace, KS | 1.0 | 25 |
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.