Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2009
EF0 tornado, Doran to Nashua, Minnesota, June 17, 2009
From Doran to Nashua, this EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Wilkin County on June 17, 2009, touching down at 4:40 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 mphthis tornado
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 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
- EF0
- Date
- June 17, 2009
- Touchdown
- 4:40 PM CDT (21:40 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Wilkin County
- Touchdown point
- 46.160, -96.490
- Lift-off point
- 46.160, -96.490
- Record number
- 0906171540-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A weak area of surface low pressure moved into extreme southeast North Dakota late on the afternoon of the 17th. Out ahead of the low, surface dew point values surged into the middle 60s with temperatures right around 80. One thunderstorm cell flared up over southeast Richland County, about 10 miles west of Fairmount, and continued to track nearly straight to the east. As the cell reached the Tenney/Nashua area, a brief tornado touchdown occurred. A second tornado also touched down near Doran.
A brief tornado touchdown in an open field just east of highway 75 was reported to the sheriff's office. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.
A brief tornado touchdown was reported near the Wilkin and Traverse County line. The tornado tracked for roughly a mile across open fields. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
45 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:55 UTC, 45 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 07:40 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | FGF |
| 15:06 UTC | 15:00 UTC | Flood Warning | FGF |
| 20:55 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 21:45 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 21:00 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 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.
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z
9.7 hours before the tornado, 204 km from the path. June 17, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 368 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 831 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 70 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 154 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
2.3 hours after it, 204 km from the path. June 18, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 205 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -171 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 957 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1523 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -23 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 17 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.2 K/km
The radar
The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 165 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:40 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:40 UTC | TORNADO | 2 S Doran | Wilkin, MN | PUBLIC REPORT OF A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN REPORTED TO SHERIFFS OFFICE. |
| 21:45 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Tenney | Wilkin, MN | WALL CLOUD AND WEAK FUNNEL STRENGTHENING. |
| 22:08 UTC | TORNADO | 4 W Nashua | Wilkin, MN | TORNADO TOUCHDOWN REPORTED NEAR TRAVERSE COUNTY LINE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 17, 2009
16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 17 | 2:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Gage, NE | 0.5 | 25 | |||
| June 17 | 2:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Washington, KS | 8.8 | 200 | $10,000 | ||
| June 17 | 5:08 PM CDT | EF0 | Wilkin, MN | 1.0 | 25 | |||
| June 17 | 7:27 PM EDT | EF0 | Wayne, OH | 3.8 | 100 | $60,000 | ||
| June 17 | 6:54 PM CDT | EF1 | Buffalo, NE | 1.1 | 200 | $100,000 | ||
| June 17 | 7:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Buffalo, NE | 0.2 | 25 | |||
| June 17 | 7:10 PM CDT | EF0 | Buffalo, NE | 3.6 | 100 | |||
| June 17 | 7:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Todd, KY | 0.2 | 30 | $5,000 | ||
| June 17 | 7:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Freeborn, MN | 1.8 | 50 | $1,000 | ||
| June 17 | 7:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Custer, NE | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| June 17 | 8:00 PM CDT | EF2 | Mower, MN | 9.6 | 120 | 1 | $2.0 million | |
| June 17 | 8:02 PM CDT | EF0 | Waseca, MN | 2.3 | 50 | |||
| June 17 | 8:38 PM CDT | EF0 | Hall, NE | 1.9 | 20 | $5,000 | ||
| June 17 | 8:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Hamilton, NE | 1.0 | 25 | |||
| June 17 | 8:51 PM CDT | EF0 | Mower, MN | 0.1 | 15 | $1,000 | ||
| June 17 | 8:59 PM CDT | EF2 | Hamilton, NE | 5.1 | 450 | $250,000 |
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.