Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2010
EF1 tornado, Hayfield to Dodge Center Arpt, Minnesota, August 13, 2010
From Hayfield to Dodge Center Arpt, this EF1 tornado ran 4.9 miles across Dodge County on August 13, 2010, touching down at 3:22 PM CDT and reaching 140 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $110,000 of property damage.
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 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- August 13, 2010
- Touchdown
- 3:22 PM CDT (20:22 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:46 PM CDT (20:46 UTC)
- On the ground
- 24 minutes
- Path length
- 4.9 miles (7.8 km)
- Path width
- 140 yards (128 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $110,000
- Crop damage
- $24,000
- County
- Dodge County
- Touchdown point
- 43.890, -92.870
- Lift-off point
- 43.960, -92.877
- Record number
- 1008131422-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A surface boundary extended into southeast Minnesota from an area of low pressure over southwest Minnesota on the afternoon of August 13th. Favorable shear and instability existed along this boundary for supercell thunderstorms, which did develop in the early afternoon hours. These thunderstorms produced tornadoes, along with severe thunderstorm winds, large hail and flooding.
The tornado damage path began just south of State Highway 30 west of Hayfield. The tornado did move off to the northeast nearing State Highway 56 before taking a north northwest track until it lifted just south of County Road 6. Damage was noted to soybean and corn fields, numerous trees and limbs were snapped and uprooted, roofing damage occurred to a metal barn/shed, while an old barn was lifted off of its foundation for a complete loss. Also, a local residence had some small beams knocked out from underneath a porch on the front of the house.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:44 UTC and running to 21:24 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06:20 UTC | 10:33 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | ARX |
| 07:40 UTC | 08:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ARX |
| 10:33 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | ARX |
| 12:00 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | ARX |
| 19:44 UTC | 21:24 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | ARX |
| 20:17 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ARX |
| 20:34 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | ARX |
| 20:53 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | ARX |
| 21:25 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | ARX |
| 21:44 UTC | 23:55 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | ARX |
| 21:45 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | ARX |
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 19:58 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.
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z
8.4 hours before the tornado, 118 km from the path. August 13, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 112 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -488 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 50 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 959 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 51 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 177 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 206 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.0 K/km
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z
3.6 hours after it, 118 km from the path. August 14, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1194 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -80 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1155 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 963 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 56 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 101 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 2.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
The radar
The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:23 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:17 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 S Steele Center | Steele, MN | FROM ROCHESTER PATROL BRIEF FUNNEL BETWEEN MM35 AND 36 |
| 20:22 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 1 W Hayfield | Dodge, MN | AN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 1 MILE WEST OF HAYFIELD ALONG HIGHWAY 30. THIS TORNADO THEN TRACKED FOR 5 MILES TO THE NORTH JUST TO THE WEST OF HIGHWAY 56 AND ENDED SOUTH OF COUNTY ROAD 6. THE MAXIMUM WIDTH WAS 140 YARDS A |
| 20:29 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ne Hayfield | Dodge, MN | SEEN BY STORM CHASER AND FIRE DEPARTMENT |
| 20:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | Dodge Center | Dodge, MN | |
| 20:37 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 5 Sw Rochester | Olmsted, MN | SEEING TORNADO |
| 20:50 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 3 Se Kasson | Dodge, MN | |
| 20:55 UTC | TORNADO | 6 S Kasson | Dodge, MN | |
| 21:40 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Sw Rochester | Olmsted, MN | WEAK TOUCHDOWN ON COUNTY ROAD 15 AT 60TH STREET SW NEAR WILDLIFE REFUGE |
| 21:50 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 7 Wnw Stewartville | Olmsted, MN | REPORTED NEAR DODGE COUNTY LINE BY SPOTTERS AND HAM RADIO OPERATORS |
| 22:25 UTC | FLOOD | Zumbrota | Goodhue, MN | LOCALIZED FLOODING IN COVERED BRIDGE PARK IN TOWN ON N FORK OF ZUMBRO RIVER...STARTED AROUND 9 AM. |
| 22:40 UTC | TORNADO | Rock Dell | Olmsted, MN | BRIEF TOUCHDOWNS |
| 23:05 UTC | TSTM WND GST 55 | Dover | Olmsted, MN | |
| 23:21 UTC | FLOOD | Rochester | Olmsted, MN | WATER INTO CARS AT APACHE MALL |
| 23:21 UTC | HAIL 1 | 6 Se Rochester | Olmsted, MN | AT INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 52 AND INTERSTATE 90 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 13, 2010
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.