EF2 tornado, Menahga to Lake George, Minnesota, June 6, 2008

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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 6, 2008

Touchdown

9:14 AM CDT (14:14 UTC)

Lifted

9:34 AM CDT (14:34 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

14.1 miles (22.7 km)

Path width

450 yards (411 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$10 million

Crop damage

$1,300,000

Counties

Wadena and Hubbard counties

Touchdown point

46.750, -95.080

Lift-off point

46.951, -95.025

Record number

0806060814-01

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.

The tornado touched down near the south end of Stocking Lake and tracked north-northeast for nearly 14 miles. It crossed into Hubbard County about 4 miles north-northeast of Menagha by 920 am CDT. It then tracked an additional 9 miles and lifted about 3 miles northeast of Park Rapids by 934 am CDT. The maximum tornado width was about 450 yards with peak winds of 130 mph. Eight large turkey barns were destroyed and several homes damaged along with hundreds of acres of forest. One man working near a turkey barn was injured.

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.

A tornado tracked to the north-northeast for nearly 3 miles and lifted about 1 mile east-southeast of Lake George by 1003 am CDT. Numerous large trees were knocked down or uprooted across Schoolcraft Lake Road and along county road 4. Peak wind speeds were estimated at 105 mph with a maximum width of 150 yards.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:52 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), 188 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:14 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 2008 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

9 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.