EF0 tornado, Girard, Minnesota, June 17, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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.

Rating

EF0

Date

June 17, 2007

Touchdown

4:11 PM CDT (21:11 UTC)

Lifted

4:13 PM CDT (21:13 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Polk County

Touchdown point

47.760, -96.670

Lift-off point

47.760, -96.670

Record number

0706171511-01

Late in the evening of the 17th, an area of surface low pressure was located just northeast of Jamestown, North Dakota, with a cold front extending south from the low. A warm front arched to the northeast, from near Jamestown to Grand Forks to Bemidji (MN). From the surface through the low layers of the atmosphere, wind speeds were quite strong. In the late afternoon of the 17th, one lone thunderstorm cell developed over Polk County (MN). By early evening, another lone thunderstorm developed over Ramsey County (ND). Finally, just before midnight, a line of thunderstorms took shape over eastern North Dakota. This line of storms moved into northwest Minnesota around midnight.

The tornado touched down in an open field to the south of county road 9, about 2 miles west of the sugar beet plant. A rope funnel persisted for about 3 minutes, with intermittent tornado touchdowns over about a 2 minute period.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:58 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:34 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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 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.

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:11 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.