Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2007
EF0 tornado, Woodbury, Minnesota, September 20, 2007
This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Washington County on September 20, 2007, touching down at 6:30 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- September 20, 2007
- Touchdown
- 6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:31 PM CDT (23:31 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500,000
- County
- Washington County
- Touchdown point
- 44.900, -92.950
- Lift-off point
- 44.900, -92.950
- Record number
- 0709201730-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Warm frontal boundary induced severe weather.
A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed an EF-0 tornado touched down in the southwestern portion of Woodbury, along Bailey Road.|It dissipated when it reached Woodlane Drive. The tornado caused damage to multiple townhouses, trees, and road signs.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
16 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:14 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:45 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:04 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | MPX |
| 20:45 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | MPX |
| 23:07 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MPX |
| 23:14 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MPX |
| 00:29 UTC | 01:03 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MPX |
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 19:42 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
11.5 hours before the tornado, 52 km from the path. September 20, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -92067 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1024 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 215 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 291 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.1 K/km
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z
0.5 hours after it, 52 km from the path. September 21, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1394 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -85 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 285 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 838 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 60 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 192 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 567 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 24.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The radar
The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:29 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:08 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Bloomington | Hennepin, MN | 6 TO 12 INCHES OF WATER ACROSS ROADWAY...83 ST SOUTH AND PENN AVE. |
| 22:20 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Plymouth | Hennepin, MN | |
| 22:22 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Maple Plain | Hennepin, MN | |
| 22:27 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Loretto | Hennepin, MN | |
| 22:38 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Plymouth | Hennepin, MN | |
| 22:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Golden Valley | Hennepin, MN | TREES DOWN...POWER OUT. |
| 22:50 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | New Hope | Hennepin, MN | |
| 22:50 UTC | HAIL 1 | Golden Valley | Hennepin, MN | |
| 23:02 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Newport | Washington, MN | NEAR WAKOTA BRIDGE. |
| 23:02 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | New Brighton | Ramsey, MN | |
| 23:14 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Inver Grove Heights | Dakota, MN | AT SOUTHVIEW BLVD AND HWY 52. |
| 23:14 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Minneapolis | Hennepin, MN | I-35W AND 35TH STREET SOUTH. |
| 23:18 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Eagan | Dakota, MN | NEAR I-35E AND YANKEE DOODLE RD. |
| 23:20 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Newport | Washington, MN | NEAR WAKOTA BRIDGE. |
| 23:20 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Brooklyn Park | Hennepin, MN | |
| 23:25 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Inver Grove Heights | Dakota, MN | AT HWYS 13 AND 52 |
| 23:25 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Blaine | Anoka, MN | |
| 23:25 UTC | HAIL 1 | Rogers | Hennepin, MN | DIME TO QUARTER SIZE HAIL FELL FOR 5 MINUTES. |
| 23:26 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Rogers | Hennepin, MN | INTERSECTION 494 AND 101. |
| 23:30 UTC | TORNADO | Woodbury | Washington, MN | IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED BY THE NWS STORM SURVEY...THAT AN EF ZERO TORNADO OCCURRED AT APPROXIMATELY 630 PM...IN THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE CITY OF WOODBURY MINNESOTA ALONG BAILEY ROAD...THURSDAY EVENING. |
| 23:32 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | St Paul | Ramsey, MN | 6 TO 12 INCHES WATER ON UNIVERSITY AVE BETWEEN SNELLING AND RICE. |
| 23:34 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Hastings | Dakota, MN | AT INTERSECTION OF 61 AND 10. |
| 23:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Woodbury | Washington, MN | LATE REPORT RECEIVED AT 715 PM. 25 FOOT SPRUCE TREE DOWN. 10 INCH LIMBS DOWN. STREET SIGNS DOWN. |
| 23:37 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Minneapolis | Hennepin, MN | STORM SEWER GEYSER AT E RIVER RD AND PILLSBURY RD 10 TO 25 FEET. |
| 23:37 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Richfield | Hennepin, MN | 66TH AND PORTLAND S...2 FEET OF STANDING WATER AT INTERSECTION...2 STALLED CARS. |
| 23:40 UTC | HAIL 1 | Anoka | Anoka, MN | |
| 23:42 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | St Paul | Ramsey, MN | |
| 00:00 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Coon Rapids | Anoka, MN | HWY 10 AND MAIN STREET |
| 00:03 UTC | HAIL 1 | Coon Rapids | Anoka, MN | |
| 00:11 UTC | HAIL 1 | Blaine | Anoka, MN |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 20, 2007
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 20 | 10:57 PM EDT | EF1 | Lake, FL | 1.8 | 300 | $6.2 million | ||
| September 20 | 12:20 AM EDT | EF1 | Lafayette, FL | 0.3 | 35 | $2,000 |
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.