Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2010
EF0 tornado, Tenney to Nashua, Minnesota, August 7, 2010
From Tenney to Nashua, this EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Wilkin County on August 7, 2010, touching down at 6:46 PM CDT and reaching 15 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
- August 7, 2010
- Touchdown
- 6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 15 yards (14 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Wilkin County
- Touchdown point
- 46.080, -96.330
- Lift-off point
- 46.073, -96.320
- Record number
- 1008071746-01
What the Weather Service recorded
By late in the day on the 7th, an east-west lying warm front had set up just north of the South Dakota border, extending eastward into west central Minnesota. South of the warm front, temperatures were in the mid to upper 80s with dew points in the lower 70s. Thunderstorms formed along and north of the warm front and several produced tornadoes.
This tornado touched down briefly in an open field, roughly seven miles east of a larger and much longer lasting tornado.
This tornado tracked for about a mile through mainly open fields. This was the latter of three distinct tornadoes which occurred from at least four distinct funnel clouds in Wilkin County during a roughly 15 to 20 minute period. Peak winds were estimated at 75 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
43 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:03 UTC, 43 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:29 UTC and running to 01:44 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:29 UTC | 01:44 UTC | Tornado Watch | FGF |
| 23:03 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 23:27 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 23:58 UTC | 00:40 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 00:05 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Flash Flood 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 19:46 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
11.8 hours before the tornado, 208 km from the path. August 7, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1979 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -159 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1282 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 799 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 139 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 162 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 2.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
0.2 hours after it, 208 km from the path. August 8, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1824 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -88 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3635 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1960 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 24 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 85 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.5 K/km
The surface observations
Fergus Falls (FFM), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:13 UTC | 84.2 | 71.6 | 140° 5 kt | 1002.7 | ||
| 22:33 UTC | 84.2 | 71.6 | 120° 5 kt | 1002.7 | ||
| 22:53 UTC | 82.4 | 71.6 | 120° 4 kt | 1002.4 | ||
| 23:13 UTC | 84.2 | 73.4 | 110° 4 kt | 1002 | ||
| 23:19 UTC | 82.4 | 73.4 | 110° 3 kt | 1002 | ||
| 00:03 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 140° 15 kt | 20 | 1002.4 | +TSRA |
| 00:13 UTC | 73.4 | 66.2 | 130° 11 kt | 20 | 1002.7 | TSRA |
| 00:33 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 90° 4 kt | 1002 | -TSRA | |
| 00:53 UTC | 75.2 | 68 | 110° 6 kt | 1002 | -TSRA | |
| 01:13 UTC | 75.2 | 66.2 | 120° 10 kt | 1002.4 | VCTS | |
| 01:33 UTC | 73.4 | 66.2 | 130° 9 kt | 1002.4 | VCTS | |
| 01:53 UTC | 71.6 | 66.2 | 90° 4 kt | 1002.4 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 176 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:16 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 5 Se Wahpeton | Wilkin, MN | FUNNEL CLOUD |
| 23:25 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 Wnw Tenney | Wilkin, MN | THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY IN A OPEN FIELD... ROUGHLY 7 MILES EAST OF A LARGER AND MUCH LONGER LASTING TORNADO. |
| 23:25 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Wnw Tenney | Wilkin, MN | |
| 23:26 UTC | TORNADO | 3 W Campbell | Wilkin, MN | |
| 23:32 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 4 Sse Breckenridge | Wilkin, MN | THE PERSISTENT FUNNEL CLOUD TRACKED EAST NORTHEASTWARD TO NEAR FOXHOME BEFORE DISSIPATING. |
| 23:35 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 Sw Doran | Wilkin, MN | |
| 23:36 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Sw Doran | Wilkin, MN | THIS TORNADO BEGAN IN RICHLAND COUNTY ND AND CONTINUED FOR AN ADDITIONAL 2.5 MILES INTO WILKIN COUNTY. IT LIFTED ABOUT 2.5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF DORAN BY 647 PM CDT. |
| 23:37 UTC | TORNADO 4 | 5 Sw Doran | Wilkin, MN | THIS TORNADO BEGAN IN RICHLAND COUNTY ND AND CONTINUED FOR AN ADDITIONAL 2.5 MILES INTO WILKIN COUNTY. IT LIFTED ABOUT 2.5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF DORAN BY 650 PM CDT. TOTAL TORNADO PATH LENGTH WAS ROUGHLY 5 MILES. MAXIMUM WI |
| 23:38 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 10 Sw Fergus Falls | Otter Tail, MN | |
| 23:38 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 9 S Fergus Falls | Otter Tail, MN | |
| 23:38 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 9 Sw Fergus Falls | Otter Tail, MN | |
| 23:46 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 Nnw Nashua | Wilkin, MN | THIS TORNADO TRACKED FOR ABOUT A MILE THROUGH MAINLY OPEN FIELDS TO ABOUT 3 MILES NORTH OF NASHUA BY 648 PM CDT. THIS WAS THE LATTER OF THREE DISTINCT TORNADOES WHICH OCCURRED FROM AT LEAST FOUR DISTINCT FUNNEL CLOUDS IN |
| 23:50 UTC | TORNADO | 8 S Fergus Falls | Otter Tail, MN | TORNADO WITH DEBRIS VIEWED FROM NEAR ELBOW LAKE. |
| 23:58 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 6 Ssw Fergus Falls | Otter Tail, MN | THE TORNADO TRACKED INTERMITTENTLY FOR ROUGHLY 4 MILES TO ABOUT 7 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF FERGUS FALLS BY 712 PM CDT. THE TORNADO TRACKED MAINLY OVER OPENED FIELDS BUT DID KNOCK DOWN SOME TREES IN SHELTER BELTS AND LEFT |
| 00:30 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 Ne Rothsay | Otter Tail, MN | WALL CLOUD WITH DEVELOPING FUNNEL. |
| 00:33 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 Ne Rothsay | Otter Tail, MN | A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN OCCURRED IN AN OPEN FIELD. NO SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED. |
| 00:35 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 1 N Wendell | Grant, MN | THE TORNADO TRACKED INTERMITTENTLY FOR NEARLY 16 MILES TO AROUND 3 MILES EAST OF ERDAHL BY 805 PM CDT. IT CONTINUED INTO DOUGLAS COUNTY FROM THIS POINT. THE TORNADO BROKE DOWN NUMEROUS TREES AND LARGE TREE LIMBS ALONG IT |
| 01:03 UTC | TORNADO | 3 W Evansville | Douglas, MN | AN NWS STORM DAMAGE SURVEY FROM THE OFFICE IN GRAND FORKS DETERMINED THAT AN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN GRANT COUNTY AND PRODUCED INTERMITTENT DAMAGE EASTWARD INTO DOUGLAS COUNTY. DAMAGE IN DOUGLAS COUNTY WAS TREE DAMA |
| 01:05 UTC | TORNADO | 3 W Evansville | Douglas, MN | |
| 01:10 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 4 N Nashua | Wilkin, MN | MULTIPLE HEAVY DOWNPOURS OF 3-4 INCHES OF RAIN PRODUCED LOCALIZED FLOODING OF FARM FIELDS AND FARM ACCESS ROADS NEAR THE RABBIT RIVER DRAINAGE. |
| 01:12 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Evansville | Douglas, MN | MOST OF THE CITY LOST POWER. |
| 01:17 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 N Brandon | Douglas, MN | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 01:18 UTC | TORNADO | 4 S Evansville | Douglas, MN | A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN WAS REPORTED BY THE PUBLIC SOUTH OF EVANSVILLE, NEAR INTERSTATE 94. |
| 01:20 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 E Brandon | Douglas, MN |
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 7, 2010
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 7 | 1:10 PM EDT | EF0 | Volusia, FL | 0.8 | 40 | $58,000 | ||
| August 7 | 6:02 PM EDT | EF0 | Palm Beach, FL | 1.8 | 30 | |||
| August 7 | 6:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Wilkin, MN to ND | 0.2 | 25 | |||
| August 7 | 6:25 PM CDT | EF4 | Tyler–Doran tornado, North Dakota and Minnesota | 5.0 | 600 | |||
| August 7 | 6:58 PM CDT | EF1 | Otter Tail, MN | 4.0 | 75 | |||
| August 7 | 7:33 PM CDT | EF0 | Otter Tail, MN | 0.2 | 25 | |||
| August 7 | 7:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Grant, MN | 21.0 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| August 7 | 7:59 PM CDT | EF1 | Otter Tail, MN | 2.2 | 75 | |||
| August 7 | 11:37 PM CDT | EF0 | Polk, WI | 2.8 | 100 | 1 | $100,000 | |
| August 7 | 11:57 PM CDT | EF1 | Barron, WI | 3.2 | 125 | $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.