EF0 tornado, Richfield to Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 19, 2009

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

August 19, 2009

Touchdown

1:50 PM CDT (18:50 UTC)

Lifted

2:00 PM CDT (19:00 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

4.3 miles (6.8 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Hennepin County

Touchdown point

44.907, -93.262

Lift-off point

44.968, -93.274

Record number

0908191250-01

During the afternoon of August 19th, a large area of generally moderate to heavy showers occurred across most of south central and east central Minnesota. The area had very few lightning strikes, and most of the shower activity was racing northward at 40 to 50 mph. An area of low pressure developed across east central Minnesota during the afternoon, and began to intensify prior to the tornado development. Several weak areas of intense showers moved northward across the Twin Cities metro area. Low level humidity levels were very high, which provided a very low cloud base around 1000'. Although weak circulations were noted on radar, not until the surface low intensified and allowed for an overall increase in the surface inflow, did tornadoes develop. Most of the tornadoes were weak.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey determined that an EF-0 Tornado tracked from near East 53rd Street and Park Avenue in South Minneapolis, to near the Convention Center in Downtown Minneapolis. Most of the damage was confined to large trees blown down, or damage to roofs and buildings/houses as the trees fell on the structures. Most of the eyewitnesses reported swirling above, and strong winds at the surface. At the widest and strongest portion of the tornado, wind speeds were estimated between 75 and 85 mph.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:32 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 Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:49 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 2009 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

29 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.