Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2010
EF0 tornado, Cloverdale, Minnesota, July 14, 2010
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Pine County on July 14, 2010, touching down at 6:15 PM CDT and reaching 100 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
- July 14, 2010
- Touchdown
- 6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Pine County
- Touchdown point
- 45.992, -92.634
- Lift-off point
- 45.992, -92.634
- Record number
- 1007141715-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Two rounds of severe thunderstorms affected central and northeastern Minnesota. The first round occurred in the morning. An area of thunderstorms developed across central Minnesota, and quickly morphed into a squall line as it raced across the central part of the state. Damaging winds were noted just west of the Duluth area.||The second round of thunderstorms developed by mid afternoon, producing damaging winds and large hail in the Brainerd Lakes region. A weak tornado touched down briefly near the Pathfinder Village area of Pine County.
A tornado touched down briefly.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
11 minutes of warning. NWS DLH issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:04 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:53 UTC and running to 00:10 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:36 UTC | 14:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DLH |
| 14:06 UTC | 20:53 UTC | Tornado Watch | DLH |
| 14:27 UTC | 15:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DLH |
| 20:53 UTC | 00:10 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | DLH |
| 22:53 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DLH |
| 23:04 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | DLH |
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 20:00 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.
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z
11.3 hours before the tornado, 148 km from the path. July 14, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2915 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -94 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1334 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 616 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 282 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 379 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 16.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.9 K/km
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z
0.7 hours after it, 148 km from the path. July 15, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3038 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4275 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1237 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 54 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 42 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 131 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.5
- Supercell composite
- 9.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.3 K/km
The surface observations
Hinckley (04W), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:34 UTC | 83.66 | 74.84 | 120° 7 kt | 1004.4 | ||
| 21:54 UTC | 83.48 | 76 | 140° 7 kt | 1004.4 | ||
| 22:14 UTC | 81.68 | 75.38 | 150° 7 kt | 1004.4 | ||
| 22:55 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 360° 8 kt | 17 | 1004.7 | -VCTSRA |
| 23:14 UTC | 79.16 | 74.84 | 340° 4 kt | 1005.4 | ||
| 23:34 UTC | 79.52 | 73 | 350° 6 kt | 1005.4 | ||
| 23:54 UTC | 79.7 | 73 | 310° 6 kt | 1006.1 | ||
| 00:14 UTC | 79.16 | 72.68 | 320° 4 kt | 1006.4 | ||
| 00:34 UTC | 79.16 | 72.68 | 0° 0 kt | 1006.4 | ||
| 00:54 UTC | 80 | 72.5 | 0° 0 kt | 1006.4 | ||
| 01:14 UTC | 79.52 | 72.5 | 270° 4 kt | 1006.4 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Duluth radar (KDLH), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.7 | Sandstone | Pine, MN | EVENT TOTAL RAINFALL THROUGH 6 PM. |
| 23:15 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ese Cloverdale | Pine, MN | UNCONFIRMED PUBLIC REPORT OF A TORNADO TOUCHDOWN NEAR PATHFINDER VILLAGE EAST OF HINCKLEY NEAR HIGHWAY 48. |
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 14, 2010
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 14 | 4:00 AM EDT | EF0 | Lehigh, PA | 2.2 | 150 | $500,000 | ||
| July 14 | 3:45 AM CDT | EF1 | Ransom, ND | 7.0 | 250 | $1.0 million | ||
| July 14 | 3:59 AM CDT | EF2 | Ransom, ND | 9.1 | 300 | $2.0 million | ||
| July 14 | 6:27 AM CDT | EF1 | Otter Tail, MN | 8.4 | 200 | $300,000 | ||
| July 14 | 7:20 AM CDT | EF0 | Wadena, MN | 1.0 | 100 | |||
| July 14 | 10:54 AM CDT | EF1 | Saint Croix, WI | 2.5 | 30 | $500,000 | ||
| July 14 | 2:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Dakota, MN | 3.5 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| July 14 | 2:32 PM CDT | EF0 | Dakota, MN | 0.0 | 10 | $500 | ||
| July 14 | 2:36 PM CDT | EF1 | Dakota, MN | 1.7 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| July 14 | 2:54 PM CDT | EF2 | Pierce, WI | 15.2 | 100 | $500,000 | ||
| July 14 | 3:06 PM CDT | EF0 | Dunn, WI | 0.6 | 20 | |||
| July 14 | 3:08 PM CDT | EF2 | Pierce, WI | 6.1 | 30 | $800,000 | ||
| July 14 | 4:16 PM CDT | EF1 | Jackson, WI | 30.8 | 150 | $10,000 | ||
| July 14 | 5:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Wood, WI | 0.3 | 50 |
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.