Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2010

EF0 tornado, Felton, Minnesota, July 13, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Clay County on July 13, 2010, touching down at 8:08 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
July 13, 2010
Touchdown
8:08 PM CDT (01:08 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Clay County
Touchdown point
47.080, -96.650
Lift-off point
47.080, -96.650
Record number
1007131908-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms formed along a weak convergent boundary separating southeast winds from south winds. Late afternoon temperatures topped out in the lower 80s with dew points in the low to mid 60s.

Debris was captured by the KVLY tower camera in Fargo and the location was estimated.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

49 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:19 UTC, 49 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:50 UTC and running to 03:59 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:50 UTC03:59 UTCTornado WatchFGF
23:56 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF
00:19 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningFGF
00:54 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF
01:05 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF
01:53 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF
01:55 UTC02:39 UTCTornado WarningFGF
08:54 UTC12:40 UTCTornado WatchFGF
09:29 UTC10:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFGF
10:29 UTC11:07 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFGF
10:37 UTC11:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFGF
11:12 UTC11:49 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFGF

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 01:00 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), 00:00Z

1.1 hours before the tornado, 278 km from the path. July 14, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2010-07-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3052 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 975 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2010-07-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 37 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
3052 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4204 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
975 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
37 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z

10.9 hours after it, 278 km from the path. July 14, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2010-07-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 801 joules per kilogram, CIN -338, lifted condensation level 572 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2010-07-14The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 201 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 79 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
801 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-338 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
572 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
79 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
276 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:06 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:08 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 E ChristineWilkin, MN
01:08 UTCTORNADO7 E GeorgetownClay, MNDEBRIS VIEWED FROM KVLY TOWER CAMERA. LOCATION IS APPROXIMATED.
01:47 UTCHAIL 1.75UlenClay, 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 July 13, 2010

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 134:50 PM EDTEF1Lincoln, NC3.2650$500,000
July 134:59 PM EDTEF1Lincoln, NC0.3100$250,000
July 135:38 PM CDTEF0Barnes, ND0.850
July 136:06 PM CDTEF1Cass, ND11.7250
July 138:11 PM CDTEF0Wilkin, MN2.420
July 1310:09 PM CDTEF0Otter Tail, MN0.225

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.