EF0 tornado, Waseca, Minnesota, June 17, 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

June 17, 2009

Touchdown

8:02 PM CDT (01:02 UTC)

Lifted

8:05 PM CDT (01:05 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Waseca County

Touchdown point

44.093, -93.478

Lift-off point

44.079, -93.437

Record number

0906171902-01

A very unstable air mass was present the afternoon of June 17th, when a surface warm front laid across portions of southeastern Minnesota. Initially, thunderstorms developed just south of this warm front near Albert Lea and moved northeast. The thunderstorms quickly became tornadic north of Albert Lea, near Geneva, where a touchdown was observed near the community. There were several reports of funnel clouds throughout the early evening with one more official touchdown near Waseca. In addition to the tornadoes, there were several reports of golf ball or larger size hail stones. Later in the evening, more severe thunderstorms developed across east central Minnesota where large hail was reported southeast of the Twin Cities metro area.

Several storm chasers, local law enforcement officers and trained spotters followed funnel clouds across central Waseca County, before the tornado was observed forming just north of the City of Waseca on Clear Lake. The tornado moved onshore and then eastsouthward to Goose Lake. No property damage occurred but several large 14 diameter trees were uprooted when the tornado came onshore. Other broken trees were noted near Goose Lake.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:01 UTC and running to 04:54 UTC.

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 Moderate 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 01:02 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), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:02 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

16 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.