Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2008

EF1 tornado, Pfingsten to Lime Creek, Minnesota, June 11, 2008

Name: EF1 tornado, Pfingsten to Lime Creek, Minnesota, June 11, 2008
Start: 2008-06-11T22:46:00.000Z
End: 2008-06-11T22:54:00.000Z
Location: Pfingsten to Lime Creek, Minnesota

From Pfingsten to Lime Creek, this EF1 tornado ran 3.8 miles across Nobles and Murray counties on June 11, 2008, touching down at 5:46 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $70,000 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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: EF1
Date: June 11, 2008
Touchdown: 5:46 PM CDT (22:46 UTC)
Lifted: 5:54 PM CDT (22:54 UTC)
On the ground: 8 minutes
Path length: 3.8 miles (6.1 km)
Path width: 100 yards (91 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $70,000
Counties: Nobles and Murray counties
Touchdown point: 43.835, -95.759
Lift-off point: 43.882, -95.717
Record number: 0806111646-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms produced three tornadoes and a report of damaging winds in southwest Minnesota at the end of the afternoon on June 11th.

A tornado damaged the top of a silo, blew the roof off a shed, and caused tree damage at a farmstead, before crossing into Murray County.

A tornado, after crossing into Murray County from Nobles County, destroyed a garage and a barn, blew down a grain bin, damaged several sheds, and caused tree damage.

A tornado blew the roof off a house, collapsed a wall in the house, and shifted the house off its foundation. A woman taking shelter in a closet was injured. On the same farmstead, the tornado also destroyed two sheds and caused minor damage to another house and two outbuildings. The tornado carried some debris from the farm over a mile. The tornado also caused extensive tree damage.

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

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 11, 3:45 PM CDT, 2 hours 1 minute earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 11, 3:45 PM CDT, 2 hours 1 minute before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR SOUTHEAST SD/SOUTHWEST MN/NORTHWEST IA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
345 PM CDT WED JUN 11 2008

.DISCUSSION...
ALL EYES ON THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING SEVERE STORM AND
FLOOD THREAT. THUNDERSTORMS WILL LIKELY DEVELOP ALONG THE SFC COLD
FRONT...WHICH AS OF MID AFTERNOON RESIDED ACROSS THE JAMES VALLEY
AND SHIFTING E. MAIN SEVERE THREAT REMAINS NEAR AND E OF I29 AND S
OF I90...HOWEVER...THAT DOES NOT EXCLUDE AREAS IN SW MN N OF I90.
LARGE HAIL TO THE SIZE OF TENNIS BALL...70+ MPH WINDS...HEAVY RAIN
...AND TORNADOES ARE ALL POSSIBLE. WARM MOIST AIR INFILTRATING THE
AREA THIS AFTERNOON WITH DEW POINTS BEGINNING TO APPROACH 70 DEGREES
AND TEMPERATURES PUSHING 80..WITH MUCH COOLER DRIER AIR BEHIND THE
COLD FRONT...SETTING THE STAGE FOR SEVERE WEATHER. SUPERCELLS ARE
LIKELY TO DEVELOP ALONG THE COLD FRONT TOWARDS THE LATER PORTIONS OF
THE AFTERNOON...THEN SHOULD BEGIN TO TRANSITION INTO A LINEAR
CONVECTION DURING THE EVENING HOURS. VIS SAT SHOWING SOME CLEARING E
OF THE COLD FRONT. THIS SHOULD LEND TO ML CAPES IN THE 2000 TO 3000
J/KG THIS EVENING ACROSS NW IA...SUPPORTIVE OF INTENSE UPDRAFTS.
ZERO TO 2 KM VGP VALUES OF .3 TO .5 INDICATE STRONG LOW LEVEL
ROTATION LIKELY WITH THE CHANCE FOR TORNADOES...AND CAN NOT RULE OUT
STRONG LONG LIVED TORNADOES. FLOODING AND FLASH FLOODING IS ALSO A
BIG CONCERN INTO PORTIONS OF NW IA AND SW MN. SOME AREAS IN NW IA
PICKED UP 1 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN THIS MORNING...ON ALREADY SATURATED
GROUND. EXPECTING ANOTHER WIDESPREAD 1 TO 3 INCHES THIS EVENING IN
THIS AREA...WITH STORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING RAINFALL RATES OF 1 TO
2 INCHES OF RAIN.

UPPER LEVEL LOW OVER THE EASTERN DAKOTAS INTO WESTERN MINNESOTA WILL
GRADUALLY SHIFT EAST THROUGHOUT THE DAY ON  THURSDAY. MIXING OF
850-800 MB WILL AID IN RELATIVELY LITTLE CIN BY LATE AFTERNOON WITH
MODEST LAPSE RATES FROM 700-500 MB. LOW LEVEL MOISTURE SHOULD BE
RELATIVELY LIMITED BEHIND THE FRONT...BUT SHOULD RESULT IN ELEVATED
CAPE OF 200-400 J/KG WITH THE GREATEST INSTABILITY ACROSS SOUTHWEST
MINNESOTA CLOSEST TO THE CORE OF THE UPPER LEVEL LOW. WITH THE DRY
LOW LEVELS AND INVERTED V TYPE SOUNDINGS...MAY SEE SOME GUSTY
CONDITIONS FROM ANY CONVECTIVE TOWERS THAT ARE ABLE TO SURVIVE THE
RELATIVELY STRONG SPEED SHEAR ALOFT.

FRIDAY WILL BE A RELATIVELY GOOD MIXING DAY AS WELL...CREATING GUSTY
CONDITIONS ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA. UPPER LEVEL LOW MAKES LITTLE
HEADWAY ON FRIDAY...SO ONCE AGAIN THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE OF
DIURNAL CONVECTION IN SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA.

SHORTWAVE FOLLOWING ON THE HEALS OF THE LARGE UPPER LEVEL LOW
APPEARS TO GET SHEARED OUT...WITH THE FIRST CHUNK OF ENERGY MOVING
INTO THE NORTHERN PLAINS ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON AS SECONDARY COLD
FRONT ROTATES AROUND LARGE UPPER LEVEL LOW OVER WESTERN GREAT
LAKES.  MOISTURE IS A LIMITING FACTOR...BUT STILL COULD SEE A FEW
THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOP ACROSS NORTHERN FORECAST AREA.

THE MAIN PIECE OF ENERGY CLIPS NORTHERN PORTIONS OF THE FORECAST
AREA ON SUNDAY...AND COULD SEE ADDITIONAL THUNDERSTORMS AS
ADDITIONAL JET ENERGY MOVES INTO THE AREA.

A DRIER QUIETER PATTERN APPEARS TO SET UP BEHIND THIS SYSTEM...AS AN
UPPER LEVEL RIDGE ATTEMPTS TO BUILD INTO THE NORTHERN PLAINS.  HAVE
MADE LITTLE IN THE WAY OF CHANGES TO THE EXTENDED...DUE TO ONGOING
SEVERE WEATHER.

TEMPERATURES LOOK TO REMAIN AT OR BELOW NORMAL FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL
DAYS...AS NORTHWEST FLOW ALOFT DRAWS COOLER AIR INTO THE REGION.

&&

.AVIATION...
IFR CEILINGS BEHIND A COLD FRONT THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY THIS
EVENING. DRIER AIR TO SCOUR OUT LOW CLOUDS LATER TONIGHT. CURRENTLY
THE COLD OVER THE JAMES VALLEY WILL PUSH EAST ACROSS MN AND IA
TONIGHT. THUNDERSTORMS ARE LIKELY THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING AHEAD
OF THE COLD FRONT...WITH SOME STORMS PRODUCING STRONG WINDS...HEAVY
RAIN...AND HAIL. STRONG SRLY WINDS ARE LIKELY AHEAD OF THE COLD
FRONT THIS AFTERNOON WITH SFC WINDS OF 30 TO 50 MPH. WINDS TO BECOME
WEST BEHIND THE FRONT AND RELATIVELY LIGHT AFTER MIDNIGHT.

&&

.FSD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
SD...NONE.
MN...FLASH FLOOD WATCH TODAY AND TONIGHT FOR MNZ081-089-090.
IA...FLASH FLOOD WATCH TODAY AND TONIGHT FOR
     IAZ002-003-012>014-020>022-031-032.
NE...NONE.

&&

LIEBL/BT

Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 11, 8:46 AM CDT, 9 hours before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
846 AM CDT WED JUN 11 2008

SDZ038>040-050-052>071-MNZ071-072-080-081-089-090-097-098-
IAZ001>003-012>014-020>022-031-032-NEZ013-014-121200-
AURORA-BEADLE-BON HOMME-BROOKINGS-BRULE-BUENA VISTA IA-
CHARLES MIX-CHEROKEE IA-CLAY-CLAY IA-COTTONWOOD MN-DAKOTA NE-
DAVISON-DICKINSON IA-DIXON NE-DOUGLAS-GREGORY-HANSON-HUTCHINSON-
IDA IA-JACKSON MN-JERAULD-KINGSBURY-LAKE-LINCOLN-LINCOLN MN-
LYON IA-LYON MN-MCCOOK-MINER-MINNEHAHA-MOODY-MURRAY MN-NOBLES MN-
OBRIEN IA-OSCEOLA IA-PIPESTONE MN-PLYMOUTH IA-ROCK MN-SANBORN-
SIOUX IA-TURNER-UNION-WOODBURY IA-YANKTON-
846 AM CDT WED JUN 11 2008

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA...
SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...NORTHWEST IOWA...AND NORTHEAST NEBRASKA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THUNDERSTORMS...
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL EXIT THE AREA THIS MORNING. THESE
STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE A PRODUCING BRIEF HEAVY RAIN AND PEA SIZED
HAIL.

THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ON PORTIONS OF EASTERN
SOUTH DAKOTA BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON...AND PUSH INTO NORTHWEST
IOWA AND SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA EARLY THIS EVENING. SOME OF THESE
STORMS WILL BE SEVERE AND CAPABLE OF PRODUCING HAIL TO THE SIZE
OF GOLF BALLS...70 MPH WINDS...AND TORNADOES. THE HIGHEST RISK
FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL GENERALLY BE NEAR AND EAST OF
INTERSTATE 29.

FLOODING...
MINOR TO MODERATE FLOODING WILL CONTINUE ALONG PORTIONS OF THE
VERMILLION...JAMES...LITTLE SIOUX...AND LOWER BIG SIOUX RIVERS
DURING THE NEXT FEW DAYS. THE FLOODING WOULD GENERALLY SUBSIDE
WITHOUT ADDITIONAL RAINFALL. HOWEVER...ADDITIONAL RAINFALL IS
EXPECTED TODAY AND TONIGHT...WITH HEAVY RAIN POSSIBLE ESPECIALLY
IN NORTHWEST IOWA.
THE ADDITIONAL RAINFALL COULD AFFECT THE RIVERS.

HEAVY RAIN FROM THUNDERSTORMS COULD CAUSE FLASH FLOODING TODAY
AND TONIGHT...AND AGGRAVATE RIVER FLOODING MAINLY INTO SOUTHWEST
MINNESOTA AND NORTHWEST IOWA. THE HEAVIEST RAIN IS EXPECTED OVER
PORTIONS OF NORTHWEST IA...MAINLY SOUTH AND EAST OF A LINE FROM
SPENCER TO SIOUX CITY...WHERE RAINFALL AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF 3
INCHES IS LIKELY.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY

SPOTTY THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THURSDAY...MAINLY IN THE
AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING. THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE
SEVERE.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE LIKELY AFTER 4 PM

&&

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT
WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/FSD. THIS INCLUDES THE GRAPHICAL HAZARDOUS
WEATHER OUTLOOK.

LIEBL

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 11, 5:34 PM CDT, 12 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
534 PM CDT WED JUN 11 2008

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

0525 PM     TORNADO          S GEORGE                43.34N 96.00W
06/11/2008                   LYON               IA   FIRE DEPT/RESCUE

&&

EWY

Local storm report, Jun 11, 5:43 PM CDT, 3 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
543 PM CDT WED JUN 11 2008

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

0537 PM     TORNADO          5 W PIERSON             42.54N 95.97W
06/11/2008                   WOODBURY           IA   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN

&&

EWY

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

10.8 hours before the tornado, 203 km from the path. June 11, 2008.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: -83506 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 792 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 213 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 394 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.5
0-3 km lapse rate: 2.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 203 km from the path. June 12, 2008.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 47 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -333 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 523 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 574 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 740 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Slayton (DVP), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:48 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2008 tornado in Minnesota Every tornado in Minnesota since 1950 Warnings in force in Minnesota now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 11, 2008

41 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 11	5:51 AM CDT	EF1	Marshall, SD	0.3	20
June 11	5:25 PM CDT	EF0	Lyon, IA	0.8	50
June 11	5:29 PM CDT	EF0	Osceola, IA	0.8	50
June 11	5:37 PM CDT	EF0	Woodbury, IA	0.9	50
June 11	5:49 PM CDT	EF0	O'Brien, IA	0.9	50
June 11	6:05 PM CDT	EF1	Murray, MN	2.7	100		1	$100,000
June 11	6:06 PM CDT	EF2	O'Brien, IA	5.7	300			$200,000
June 11	6:13 PM CDT	EF0	Barton, KS	0.7	50
June 11	6:20 PM CDT	EF1	O'Brien, IA	0.9	50			$5,000
June 11	6:25 PM CDT	EF1	Burt, NE	1.3	440
June 11	6:27 PM CDT	EF3	Harrison, IA	13.0	440	4	48
June 11	6:40 PM CDT	EF2	Clay, IA	13.1	100			$300,000
June 11	6:45 PM CDT	EF0	Cottonwood, MN	2.0	50			$5,000
June 11	6:45 PM CDT	EF1	Barton, KS	10.0	100			$65,000
June 11	6:59 PM CDT	EF0	Douglas, NE	0.1	40
June 11	7:11 PM CDT	EF0	Ellsworth, KS	0.7	50
June 11	7:11 PM CDT	EF0	Clay, IA	0.4	50
June 11	7:20 PM CDT	EF1	Brown, MN	0.6	25			$300,000
June 11	7:20 PM CDT	EF1	Pottawattamie, IA	2.4	40
June 11	7:20 PM CDT	EF0	Monona, IA	0.3	60
June 11	7:21 PM CDT	EF0	Crawford, IA	1.2	60
June 11	7:23 PM CDT	EF0	Pottawattamie, IA	0.8	20
June 11	7:25 PM CDT	EF0	Clay, IA	0.4	50
June 11	7:35 PM CDT	EF0	Barton, KS	0.7	50
June 11	7:39 PM CDT	EF0	Cass, NE	0.2	40
June 11	7:46 PM CDT	EF0	Brown, MN	0.4	25			$100,000
June 11	7:50 PM CDT	EF1	Cass, NE	5.4	80
June 11	7:52 PM CDT	EF1	Brown, MN	2.0	25			$100,000
June 11	7:57 PM CDT	EF0	Barton, KS	0.7	50
June 11	7:59 PM CDT	EF0	Shelby, IA	0.4	60
June 11	8:05 PM CDT	EF0	Shelby, IA	0.2	80
June 11	8:15 PM CDT	EF0	Ellsworth, KS	0.8	50			$10,000
June 11	8:38 PM CDT	EF0	Jefferson, NE	0.2	40
June 11	8:48 PM CDT	EF0	Saline, KS	1.6	75
June 11	9:06 PM CDT	EF0	Sibley, MN	0.3	25
June 11	9:40 PM CDT	EF3	Saline, KS	16.4	225			$2.6 million
June 11	10:12 PM CDT	EF3	Dickinson, KS	15.3	880	1	3	$20 million
June 11	10:45 PM CDT	EF0	Dickinson, KS	0.2	50
June 11	10:48 PM CDT	EF4	Manhattan tornado, KS	8.6	440			$66 million
June 11	11:20 PM CDT	EF0	Pottawatomie, KS	4.6	75
June 11	11:46 PM CDT	EF2	Pottawatomie, KS	17.3	300	2

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.