EF1 tornado, Elizabeth to Vergas, Minnesota, June 7, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

June 7, 2007

Touchdown

1:41 PM CDT (18:41 UTC)

Lifted

1:52 PM CDT (18:52 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Otter Tail County

Touchdown point

46.374, -96.149

Lift-off point

46.451, -96.100

Record number

0706071241-01

By noon on the 7th, a surface low was located near Lake Park, Minnesota, with a trailing cold front extending back into extreme southeast North Dakota. An occluded front also extended to the northeast, toward the Bemidji, MN, area. Surface dew points pooled right around 60 F in the vicinity of the surface low with temperatures in the middle 70s. The cold front was strong for early June, with a noon temperature in Devils Lake, ND, of 48 degrees. This set up a strong surface thermal and moisture boundary along a Wahpeton-Breckenridge to Bemidji line. Storms initially fired across southeast ND and then spread into portions of west central and northwest MN. There was also strong upper level support for these storms, as one severe report north of Embden (in Cass County, ND) occurred well behind the surface boundary.

The tornado touched down just south of county road 10 to the west of Elizabeth and tracked north-northeast about 6 miles to about 2 miles south of Erhard. Several trees were torn down and a few power poles were snapped. Spotters noted that the tornado was up and down along this path. The tornado crossed Highway 59 about 2.7 miles north of Elizabeth. Peak winds were estimated at 90 to 95 mph.

A tornado touched down near the southwest end of Lake Lida, crossed Lake Lida and Crystal Lake (moving north-northeast), and lifted around 4 miles west of Vergas. Several houses were structurally damaged on Lake Lida and Crystal Lake. Boats, docks, travel trailers, and mobile homes were lofted and completely destroyed. Numerous power poles and trees were snapped off, cutting power to nearly 400 customers. Peak winds were estimated at 130 to 135 mph.

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

NWS Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 7, 12:11 PM CDT, 1 hour 30 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND
1211 PM CDT THU JUN 7 2007

.UPDATE...CONVECTION IS FIRING UP ON THE SOUTHWEST...NORTHWEST AND
NORTHEAST SIDES OF THE SURFACE LOW IN WEST CENTRAL MN WITH SEVERAL
STRONG SHORTWAVES EXPECTED TO PASS OVER. TORNADO WATCH AREA IS
WHERE THE MOST INSTABILITY IS AND IS INCREASING. CLEAR SKIES
EARLY AND INITIALLY WARM CONDITIONS NEAR THE LOW HAS INCREASED THE
CONCERN FOR POTENTIAL SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND POSSIBLE TORNADOES.
CONVERGENT BOUNDARY ON THE NORTHWEST SIDE OF THE LOW IS SETTING UP
WITH INCREASING COVERAGE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS SO MOVED THE
HIGHEST AMOUNT OF RAIN EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON FARTHER SOUTH...
MAINLY TO NORTH OF VALLEY CITY TO GFK AND ROX. WILL LEAVE THE
FLOOD WATCH SLIGHTLY FARTHER NORTHWEST INTO DVL AND HCO MAINLY OUT
OF CAUTION SINCE THEY HAVE RESPECTABLE SHOWERS TOO. BUT WE MAY BE
ABLE TO CANCEL THAT FLOOD WATCH A BIT EARLY. WIND ADVISORY IS
ONGOING TOO FOR WEST OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY AND THE RESPONSIBLE
SURFACE PRESSURE GRADIENT IS MOVING INTO THE ADVISORY AREA. WILL
HAVE TO WATCH THIS FOR A POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF THE ADVISORY
FARTHER SOUTH OR EAST.

&&

.FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
ND...FLOOD WATCH UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR NDZ006>008-014>016-
     024-026-054.

     WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR NDZ006-007-014-015-
     024-026-028-038-049-052-054.

MN...FLOOD WATCH UNTIL 7 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR MNZ004.

&&

GV

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND
635 AM CDT THU JUN 7 2007

MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024-
026>030-038-039-049-052>054-081145-
WEST POLK-NORMAN-CLAY-KITTSON-ROSEAU-LAKE OF THE WOODS-
WEST MARSHALL-EAST MARSHALL-NORTH BELTRAMI-PENNINGTON-RED LAKE-
EAST POLK-NORTH CLEARWATER-SOUTH BELTRAMI-MAHNOMEN-
SOUTH CLEARWATER-HUBBARD-WEST BECKER-EAST BECKER-WILKIN-
WEST OTTER TAIL-EAST OTTER TAIL-WADENA-GRANT-TOWNER-CAVALIER-
PEMBINA-BENSON-RAMSEY-EASTERN WALSH COUNTY-EDDY-NELSON-
GRAND FORKS-GRIGGS-STEELE-TRAILL-BARNES-CASS-RANSOM-SARGENT-
RICHLAND-WESTERN WALSH COUNTY-
635 AM CDT THU JUN 7 2007

...HEAVY RAINFALL AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE OVER PORTIONS OF
THE REGION TODAY...

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH
DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A DEEP AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL CROSS THE REGION TODAY. TO THE
NORTH OF THE SURFACE LOW TRACK THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR
ADDITIONAL SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL FROM THE DEVILS LAKE REGION
NORTHEAST TO THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER. THE HEAVIER RAINFALL
COMBINED WITH SATURATED SOILS COULD LEAD TO SOME FLOODING
POTENTIAL. FARTHER TO THE EAST SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE
BY MID AFTERNOON. THE FAVORED LOCATION FOR STRONG STORMS WILL BE
EAST OF A LINE FROM WAHPETON TO ROSEAU. DAMAGING WINDS...LARGE
HAIL AND ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL BE THE THREAT. THE SEVERE THREAT
SHOULD END BY EARLY EVENING AS THE LOW PRESSURE CENTER SHIFTS
EAST.

STRONG NORTH WINDS OF 25 TO 40 MPH IN THE WAKE OF THE PASSING LOW
PRESSURE AREA WILL AFFECT AREAS MAINLY WEST OF A LINE FROM LISBON
TO LANGDON TODAY.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED.

VOELKER

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
126 PM CDT THU JUN 07 2007

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0114 PM     HAIL             5 N FAIRMOUNT           46.13N 96.60W
06/07/2007  E0.88 INCH       RICHLAND           ND   TRAINED SPOTTER

0115 PM     HAIL             5 NW DORAN              46.24N 96.56W
06/07/2007  E1.00 INCH       WILKIN             MN   NWS EMPLOYEE

            HAIL CONTINUED UNTIL 118 PM CDT.

&&

VGODON

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.

Fergus Falls (FFM), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 154 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:40 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.

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

11 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.