Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2008
EF3 tornado, Hubbard to Park Rapids, Minnesota, June 6, 2008
From Hubbard to Park Rapids, this EF3 tornado ran 7.3 miles across Hubbard County on June 6, 2008, touching down at 9:37 AM CDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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 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 mphthis tornado
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
- EF3
- Date
- June 6, 2008
- Touchdown
- 9:37 AM CDT (14:37 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:47 AM CDT (14:47 UTC)
- On the ground
- 10 minutes
- Path length
- 7.3 miles (11.7 km)
- Path width
- 400 yards (366 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Hubbard County
- Touchdown point
- 46.980, -95.020
- Lift-off point
- 47.081, -94.973
- Record number
- 0806060837-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A vertically stacked cold-core low pressure system moved into the Red River Valley and brought ideal conditions for low topped mini supercells. A negatively tilted 500 mb trough, diffluent height field, and a strong upper level disturbance were all present. At the surface, there was even a warm front east of the low, toward Hubbard and Wadena Counties.
This tornado originated in Wadena County, 1 mile east of Menagha, at 914 am CDT. It continued north-northeast where it crossed Hinds Lakes and passed along the east edge of Park Rapids. It lifted about 3 miles northeast of Park Rapids by 934 am CDT. Maximum tornado width was about 450 yards with peak winds of 130 mph. The tornado destroyed one home and hundreds of acres of forest. Several homes and businesses from Hinds Lake to Park Rapids received damage.
This tornado tracked for about 7 miles from the southwest edge of Big Sand Lake, across Pickerel Lake, to 1 mile northwest of Emmaville by 947 am CDT. Maximum width was around 400 yards with peak winds to 160 mph. The tornado completely destroyed two homes and damaged several others on Pickerel Lake. It flattened dozens of acres of forest.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Park Rapids (PKD), 16 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 Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 184 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:37 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 trackEvery 2008 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 6, 2008
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 6 | 9:14 AM CDT | EF2 | Wadena, MN | 14.1 | 450 | 2 | $10 million | |
| June 6 | 9:42 AM CDT | EF0 | Hubbard, MN | 5.9 | 75 | $100,000 | ||
| June 6 | 9:55 AM CDT | EF1 | Hubbard, MN | 2.4 | 150 | $400,000 | ||
| June 6 | 10:43 AM CDT | EF1 | Hubbard, MN | 0.6 | 30 | $200,000 | ||
| June 6 | 2:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Racine, WI | 3.4 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| June 6 | 3:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Cherokee, OK | 0.1 | 75 | |||
| June 6 | 4:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Ogemaw, MI | 1.1 | 100 | $75,000 | ||
| June 6 | 4:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Coles, IL | 5.0 | 200 | $275,000 | ||
| June 6 | 8:44 PM EDT | EF0 | Van Wert, OH | 0.5 | 100 | $5,000 |
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.